Between The Lines
by MrQuestionMark
Summary: The unspoken stories of this world. The lives of this world have been happening for as long as one can remember. Now, it is time for the veil surrounding that to be removed. These are those stories that can only be read when one looks...Between The Lines. SEPARATE project to A Certain Unknown Level 0. A collection of one-shots dealing with different themes and characters.
1. The Memory of Long Ago

**Welcome to Between the Lines.**

**This is a separate project for another one that you probably know me best for on this fanfiction category: A Certain Unknown Level 0. If you wanted a back story for this project, it was back when all the data on my USB was erased and I felt that I had to make it up to those that really wanted to read what I was writing. As I had no knew material though, I made it up through these one-shots. And here they are on an official page.**

**This was perhaps because of the fact that I felt as though my main story focuses on a particular character for the time length of an arc but at the same time, the character becomes the focus for the length of that arc and perhaps can be mentioned later in other arcs and even participate. Of course, I hope that no one complains about that but the major disadvantage there in the fact that, well one has to put up with what I write for the length of that arc.**

**I realize that many people out there would want me to write different characters in a context that is perhaps closer to the canon than my own project there but at the same time, this project is really one that allows me to really focus on light hearted nature that this series gives, especially with its different characters.**

**Please note though that this project really doesn't have anything to do with my other one UNLESS someone really wants me to write something that was seen A Certain Unknown Level 0 that they want expanded in this field here. Similarly, anything that is written here is something that does not really count for A Certain Unknown Level 0 as well. In this respect though, the SS 2013 Christmas Special is something that perhaps belongs here as it is non-canon to the story line.**

**If you wanted to see if I wrote anything like that once again, perhaps this would be the place to visit in the future.**

**But is I wanted to say something about this project, it's that as it is one-shots, I leave the topics and what you want me to write about up to you. Think of it as a customizable restaurant. You choose the 'menu' or the one-shots and I'll see what I can do.**

**Yet at the same time, I really want you guys to remember that I'll be balancing the others works that I have as well.**

**But first and foremost, (excluding those that did not already read this previously), I want to thank my beta reader PokeRescue18 for this work with this. He didn't really have to but he contributed and I really am thankful for this. It's probably because he got on board that I did in the first place.**

**And thanks for sticking with this strange project for me.**

**And this applies to all chapters from now on so I don't have to write it again:**

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT own To Aru Majustu No Index nor its affiliations or anything written by Kamachi Kazuma or owned by such.**

**But apart from that: enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

The Memory that Only One Remembers. _Connection_in_the_Heart_

"Look, look! Isn't that-!?"

"It is!"

"But why are they here?"

The Tokiwadai Middle School students in their gym uniforms merely stood among the 'commoners' round them as they noted the lecherous stares of the boys around them and the sudden tightness that their uniforms seemed to have.

"Honestly, why is that we have to come here for gym? Even though we have a pool back at school, I think it's rather pointless that we need to do specific tasks for each day."

Misaka Mikoto remarked that in an off handed fashion while leaning against the wire mesh fence of the sports equipment that the Tokiwadai students had managed to hire for the day, although in very small numbers given the size and status of the school.

Whether or not it reflected the fact that Tokiwadai had better facilities that they were not willing to rent out all of the facilities or the fact that some people were jealous of the 'ojou-sama' image that the students held, some of the students were made to sit on the benches in front of the equipment that was in front of them while others were made to use it.

The equipment in nature? The batting cage that was located in District 7.

Although it was after school, something that caused a problem for most of the students that were made to endure this primitive batting facility, these students were those that had managed to skip out from gym class for numerous reasons and as such, this pseudo-supplementary class had been set up especially for them.

Yet-

"What I don't get though is why you're here. I would think you would save us both the trouble of meeting each other with that Mental Out of yours, _Shokuhou Misaki_."

Mikoto frowned towards the girl that was sitting on the bench in front of the equipment, much like the others, as she waved a hand and parted the girls that were surrounding her as if they were clothes on a rack.

Shokuhou merely smiled towards Mikoto, even though she was in her gym uniform, as she pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"I would like nothing better _Misaka-san." _replied Shokuhou with a casual tone although the tension in it was detectable by that fellow Level 5. "But it seems that my little tolerance ability for gym has meant that in order to attempt to get me to be more athletic, the teachers have requested me to be here. Although I could merely manipulate their memories, I do need a breath of fresh air. Not only that but it gives me the chance to see how things are on the outside."

Mikoto frowned in regards to what the other Level 5 said, noticing though that there were definitely some people in the crowd that was around Shokuhou that were not wearing the Tokiwadai uniform that they were both wearing.

Was she expanding her 'influence' beyond the school grounds? Or was she slowly spreading her influence in order to get a peek into the minds of those that did not see through the fake façade that she had set up herself?

Mikoto wondered however she knew that Shokuhou would never intentionally put people under her control in any life-threatening danger so she had no need to try and stop Shokuhou from mingling with others. But the fact that she could do such a thing without a care for others really annoyed her.

Why control other people's lives when they were theirs to live? Was that a rejection of their will, their very purpose? It was a philosophical question however the fact that Shokuhou could literally toy with people's will and being without a care went against the ideals that Mikoto held.

"So in the end, are you actually going to do anything? With those pieces of fat, I imagine you must have had a hard time actually getting here." remarked Mikoto with a bitter tone.

"You on the other hand had no trouble getting here, you monster Amazon. Did you escape from a battle manga Misaka-san?"

Both of the Level 5s looked at each other, although the silent sparks that escaped through their eyes collided in mid-air although it was something that was not noticeable by those around them.

"Misaka! Your turn is up! You're the last one today so we're using 1000 balls for your practice, hit using your power to manipulate the bats and we're all done! Everyone else, you can stay or leave but head back to your dorms before curfew is up!"

Their gym teacher, called out to the others and most of the students bid each other a good day, although most of them did so to Shokuhou before finally leaving, meaning that the majority of the girls that remained were those that seemed to be drawn towards Shokuhou's centre of gravity, although to Mikoto it was more the centre of her chest.

She also noted that although Shokuhou had not had her turn, Mikoto was the last one to be called. Although it bothered her that once again she was messing with people's memories, appealing to her better nature was not something that Mikoto thought was possible.

Boys stood around the cage as well as some girls as Mikoto walked into the cage with her hands in her pockets of her gym uniform, looking at the ball dispensers at the end of the cage.

They were set up in two rows of two, each of them placed so they looked like a four on a die. Mikoto looked to the side, at the bats that were placed on the edge of the cage, walking over to each of them as she lifted them up and inspected them from close up.

"Bats are more Saten-san's field but…."

Mikoto said that comment offhand before she opened her hands, manipulating magnetism in order to lift 4 bats from the ground so that they hovered in front of her expertly as she maintained a proper batting stance even though she was not holding a bat.

The bats floated around her and lined themselves up on both her right and left in front of as Mikoto closed one eye as she watched the ball dispensers go into motion, slowly moving the first ball into the slot.

"And-!"

The voice of the gym teacher resounded through the air and numerous students brought out their phones as they watched the girl, unwanted attention that made Mikoto maintain a stiff smile.

Attention during gym was the last thing that she wanted however she put up with it. If anything, if she acted on the attention, Shokuhou would probably manipulate the memory in order to portray her as a beast that she wanted everyone to think Mikoto was. And there was no way that Mikoto was going to give into that!

"Begin!"

The gym teacher's voice immediately unleashed the balls from the ball dispensers as Mikoto used her magnetism to swing the bats as she swung her imaginary bat in the process, the sound of 4 balls hitting 4 bats filling the batting cage as the balls sailed into the air and hit the roof of the cage.

Cries of awe filled the area however a shout of "There's more!" made everyone turn towards the sight of Mikoto swing the bats in repetitive actions, each of them hitting their targets as Mikoto moved the bats around in order to possibly provide a challenge for herself the entire time.

Yet, although all eyes were on Mikoto, there was one person whose eyes were not.

Shokuhou Misaki looked not at the cage where Mikoto was batting with surprising accuracy (as was to be expected with that sporty girl) but rather at the cage that was next to her, a cage that was marked with tape that read 'Do Not Enter' across it. The cage itself seemed in good condition however the ball dispenser at the end was gone, the only thing replacing it being a large black mass with the metal plate bent outwards from the inside as if something had burst out from within it.

The girls that had surrounded Shokuhou had already moved away from her in order to observe the form of Mikoto however even so, Shokuhou had not minded this once. She crossed her legs, placing her elbow on her knee as she leaned her head on her hand while looking to the left of the cage where Mikoto was batting.

There had been another reason why Shokuhou had chosen to stay in this place and not manipulated the memory of the Tokiwadai staff completely when it came to this pointless gym exercise.

This was another place where she had a memory with perhaps the most important person in her life.

As the incident that regarded Mitsuari Ayu was over, she was glad to see that, like with the Ground Geo, this location matched what happened in her memory and this was one of the things where she had possibly done the unexpected with a person that exceeded every expectation that had been placed on her.

That time was perhaps one of the few occasions where she had been glad to initially start the sporty program that 'he' had egged her on to do, although it had ended with disaster.

Shokuhou laughed without meaning to as she remembered the thought, attracting attention of those around her, especially Mikoto causing her to miss numerous of the balls that were being fired in rapid succession now, although she didn't care.

This was one of her many memories.

Memories of that summer that seemed so long ago.

* * *

"That's why we're here."

The younger Kamijou Touma stood on the other side of the batting cage in his summer uniform with his arms crossed and his face looking proud while the younger, underdeveloped Shokuhou Misaki trembled while standing in the batting cage.

"I-It seemed like such a good idea at first. I-It honestly did." Shokuhou trembled now that she had been stripped of her handbag by Kamijou, something that was sitting next to his side as he watched her however even then she did not take notice.

Her hands trembled around the wooden bat that she was trying to lift up and she mentally cursed herself for allowing her to be persuaded by the somewhat convincing argument that the boy had given her when they had managed to meet by chance in a convenience store that sold school stationary.

She may have been a high-class rich girl but even Shokuhou knew that there was no point going to buy the most expensive pencils and pens when there were cheaper options that lasted longer and were half the price.

They had simply met before one thing had led to another, Kamijou offering to show her something that she had yet to experience. She cursed herself for letting her guard down when she was with him however even since she had received that damn whistle from him, she had never really thought of him as a person that she had to put up that façade for.

He accepted her for who she was and that, given everything that had happened regarding Dolly, was perhaps something stronger than words of the wise or endless gifts and praise.

However even then, she seemed rather let down that she had been tamed by him in the short time that they had known each other but she only blamed herself. After all, these experiences seemed to bring something new to her each time so she didn't regret any of them.

Well, she probably did now.

"What are you talking about? What happened to the impression of a 'young woman' that you wanted!? You're lacking the breasts but you may as well improve in the improvement in areas that you have no talent in!"

"Shut up! I am a young woman! No man can resist my charm!" retorted Shokuhou as she turned her head and dropped the wooden bat, pointing to herself in pride.

"Sure, sure. You're the best Shokuhou. Just pick up the bat OK?" replied Kamijou as he waved his hand back and forth.

"What is that half-assed answer? Are you trying to be nice or something?!" complained Shokuhou as she stormed to the edge of the cage.

"Hah! Of course! Through the use of fox words, I shall overcome this obstacle and help you improve towards the objective that you want! Besides, you're better at sport than you think. When you jabbed me in the head with your bag, that followed the same motion of hitting a ball you know?" replied Kamijou although he had no need to fear Mental Out given her confines in then cage and having being stripped of her powers. **[1]**

Shokuhou grumbled to herself however recognised the effort that the boy was making. He was taking his own time in order to help Shokuhou with something that she didn't really need help with so it was questionable what she thought she would get out of this encounter however she went along with it anyway.

"How I hit you with my bag huh? Well, I just got the edge and swung." replied Shokuhou as she trembled and lifted the bat up slowly.

"Yeah, yeah like that! I'm kind of scared if this will make me develop some strange tendencies in the future but yeah! Imagine you're hitting me! Wait….actually do you have some sort of grudge against me!? I don't think I did anything serious to you you know! I apologised for what happened in District 21 didn't I!?"

Shokuhou swung the bat with all of her might, completing the action with an accuracy that even baseball professionals would have gagged at had they seen the action that she had performed.

"Do you want to come over here and say that!?" she asked, a dark miasma-like substance flowing from her mouth.

"I-I'll think I'll pass. But yeah! Like that! Do it a few more times!"

Shokuhou did as she was asked, Kamijou from the other side of the cage demonstrating with a bat the correct position that Shokuhou emulated and it was a short time later that they had undertaken using actual balls in the practice towards making Shokuhou more athletic.

'OK! You ready Shokuhou?"

"N-No! You never said we would be doing this like this! I want the easy method! Can't we start with something softer than an actual ball?!" she quivered in fright as she looked towards Kamijou who was standing near the edge of the cage with his hand on a lever that unleashed the balls from the dispenser.

"You'll never learn like that! Where do you think you'll get if you don't put in the effort?"

"Those types of words will not convince me to act! The whole 'you can do it' act ability won't work on me!"

"OK, unleashing ball number 1 now!"

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?" There was a clicking sound on the other end of the cage and Shokuhou saw the ball load itself into the slot.

She remembered her training. She looked at the bat that was in her arms, tensed her fingers in their gloves and looked up towards the ball that was coming her way-

Just as the ball itself whizzed past her head, the air from the momentum lifting her hair up in all directions.

'K-Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!? I-I won't do it! I won't! I almost died there! Let me out! Let me out!" screamed the athletic girl as she pounded on the cage with her hands, attracting stares from those around her in response.

Kamijou on the other hand merely gave a sigh, opening the cage however walked into it with her before closing it. She gave him a strange look as he did so.

"What are you doing?! I wanted you to-"

"I know what you wanted. But at the same time, there are some things that you have to bear even though you don't want to accept them. That's just how things are OK? I know that you know what I mean." Kamijou said to her with a small smile on his face.

"Huh? What do you mean?" asked Shokuhou to which Kamijou merely pointed to the door.

"_I didn't unlock that door to get in. _You could have left anytime. But you stayed. That means that a part of you at least wants there to be some form of progress in this right?" he asked her.

"Ah." Shokuhou's face slightly went red however she turned away before Kamijou could see the action. Although she didn't want to admit it, the day had progressed well for her even though she was doing something that she was not used to and she felt rather selfish in the sense that she had wanted to enjoy it as much as possible.

"Just stay for a bit longer OK? And call me Kamijou-sensei! I'll give you the crash course that you need to make a name for yourself within seconds!" he shouted with enthusiasm as he picked up the bat on the ground.

"Kamijou-sensei? I think not. You must have a large amount of confidence ability if you think I have enough respect ability or affection points for you to call you that!" she said however the boy paid it no mind as he walked towards her with the bat, handing it to her which she reluctantly took.

And then, something sudden happened that Shokuhou had never expected.

Kamijou circled behind her and grabbed her hands that were placed on the bat without warning, his body pressing up against hers in a position that middle school students had indecent thoughts about at their age.

"Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-!" stammered Shokuhou however Kamijou raised his hands, and thus Shokuhou's as they watched the ball in the ball dispenser hang there.

"OK. The first thing is to keep an eye on the ball. You got that? No matter what happens, the ball is the reason why you're here. When you lose sight of that then you've already lost. The ball will come at you at an incredible speed but your bat is your weapon. It is the thing that allows you to strike and overcome this obstacle that you've chosen to overcome. Have you got that young Padawan?" asked Kamijou.

"Th-The ball is my target. The bat is my weapon. Understood sen-What the!? I almost gave in just then! Just how good is your persuasion ability?!" Shokuhou asked as she turned her head however found that the boy's face was a little too close for her comfort, turning away as she looked at the ball in the dispenser.

"Never mind that! Are you ready? The ball is going to come anytime now!" yelled Kamijou, making her jump.

"A-Anytime!? What do you-"

The ball fired from the dispenser and Shokuhou let out a scream as she swung the bat, while Kamijou was still holding onto her hands.

The bat swung through the air as the ball flew through it-

*Swoosh*

*Smack*

*Splat*

"Ow! M-My liver! You hit my liver! Just how hopeless are you!?" yelled Kamijou as he rolled on the ground however it was Shokuhou that answered back with an even more pressing remark.

"Are you kidding me!? That ball hit me in the face even though I clipped it! I knew that this had bad idea ability written all over it!" cried Shokuhou as she picked up the ball that was in front of her on the ground, trying to throw it at Kamijou's face and, even though he was right in front of her, she missed and it landed in front of the boy.

There was an awkward silence as the two students looked at the ball, Kamijou eventually standing up and placing a comforting hand on Shokuhou's shoulder.

"It's OK. We won't do this again."

"D-Did you just give up!? What were you talking about bearing things before? Are you allowed to even quit like this as my tutor?" protested Shokuhou at the unfair dismissal and giving up attitude that Kamijou had adopted.

"Don't say that when you're not even paying me! I'm a Level 0 so if a Level 5 were to be paying me, I would do anything you wanted for a reasonable fee! I think I was wrong in my approach to teach you anyway. OK, then how about this way?" Kamijou, while holding his liver approached the bat and picked it up from the ground as Shokuhou moved to the side as she watched the boy.

"First, watch how I do it! And then if you want to continue then-"

*Pfft*

"Eh?"

"Eh?"

There was the sound of something ejecting and both Shokuhou and Kamijou turned in order to see the baseball flying at top speed right towards Kamijou's face. Even though Shokuhou had managed to clip the ball, she had done so with Kamijou holding it as well, so the impact to her face (which had left a rather amusing bruise) had not been that severe.

But that would not be the same for Kamijou who was caught completely unaware.

And he reacted in the way that a normal middle school student would.

"Damn iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttttttttttttttt!" Kamijou swung the bat with all his might, his hands sweating unreasonably from the sudden stress yet-

The ball landed squarely in Kamijou's face, the momentum on the swing that Kamijou was meaning that the bat was still in motion, the sweat on his hands causing him to loosen the grip on the bat because of the ball hitting him in the face, meaning that the bat sailed out of his grip and flew through the air.

Furthermore, the blow to Kamijou's face literally through him off his feet as he landed on the ground, rolling on the ground as he clutched his face as the ball rolled on the ground, with a touch of red on it.

And the response of the person that had witnessed the entire thing?

"Really?! And you criticise my athletic ability with th-"

Although Shokuhou said that, she raced towards the boy however never got the chance to reach him. The reason was simple.

Remember that bat that had flown out of Kamijou's grip? Said bat had flown through the air in such a parabolic arc that it seemed to defy the laws of physics and mathematics, circling through the air and hitting the dispenser machine right in the middle of it loading in the next ball.

Naturally, the malfunction in the working equipment had caused a small spark however that was all that was needed to set the wooden bat alight, something that given the close proximity to the electrical equipment set it alight as well.

The resulting explosion threw Shokuhou off her feet as the cloud of dust that erupted from the ball dispenser meant that the remains of it was the sheet of metal that the dispenser had been on being dyed black from the smoke with a large area of metal distorted where the explosion had occurred.

Shokuhou went wide eyed as she looked at the scene in front of her while the boy on the ground merely rose his head and also went wide eyed.

The fire alarm whined and sprayed the two of them with water however Shokuhou had no response to what had just happened.

Her companion on the other hand had different ideas.

"S-Such misfortuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

* * *

Was that a good memory or a bad memory?

Shokuhou Misaki had a hard time deciding however even then, her mind went back towards two things that that boy had said during that time.

_"I apologised for what happened in District 21 didn't I!?"_

_"But at the same time, there are some things that you have to bear even though you don't want to accept them. That's just how things are OK?"_

Although then and there, they hadn't meant anything to Shokuhou, given now, they suddenly increased in significance.

District 21. While to Shokuhou, it was the sight of their second meeting, it was the sight for Kamijou of a mark of failure. The black spot that he had borne unfairly, a black spot that had been caused by Shokuhou herself.

And that had been something that he had been made to bear unfairly, without anyone asking or telling him what was fair in that regard.

He had said both of those things towards someone who he should have blamed for happening however he had made no angry remark or outburst towards her. Instead, he had merely stuck with her and continued to smile a pure smile that had nothing resembling malice inside it.

He was surely tearing himself up on the inside every time he saw her yet he had chosen to stick with her and even made time to spend with her, doing something that she had stupidly complained about.

He should have gotten angry. He should have retorted with a remark about what Shokuhou had done.

If he had, Shokuhou would not have blamed him.

But he had done none of that.

He had simply smiled at her purely without malice and allowed herself to enjoy her time, even though it had ended with disaster.

"And that's us done. Well done Misaka. 99.5% of the balls were hits and the rest were misses. Do you think that you could improve for the perfect score next time?" asked the gym teacher as they opened the batting cage door and led Mikoto out.

"Of course sensei. Although I could do without the distractions, I will do my best next time." said Mikoto with a slight glare towards Shokuhou however the 5th Level 5 had merely stood up, bowing towards her teacher and not even responding towards Mikoto's remark as she left that batting arena.

This was a place where she had maintained a small memory within her heart and now that she thought about it, trying to taint it with the distortions of the present was nothing more than trampling on the feelings that she held within her.

With her handbag over her shoulder, she took the exit that she knew Mikoto would not take, exiting out so that the Windowless Building was in the distance.

She took a deep breath, her chest expanding as she did so, attracting the stares of some boys however even then, she concentrated on the smell of the area that was behind her.

That smell and place was something that was only one part of her memories with that boy however even so, it made her remember those times that had been lost and held by her only. She knew that trying to hold onto them was selfish….

"But at the same time, there are some things that you have to bear even though you don't want to accept them. That's just how things are OK? Isn't that right?" she asked rhetorically to no one in particular as she reached into her bag, feeling the small silver whistle that was inside, the feeling and reminiscence that it gave serving as nothing more as a further reminder of those lost days.

Was there a chance that they would come back?

Would there ever be the chance she would regain that hero that she had lost?

She hoped. But even so, that hope was something that she had to bear for herself right now.

She exhaled and started off yet-

"Touma. I don't exactly see how this is going to help me in anyway."

"I agree. Why did I have to come anyway?"

Shokuhou froze, seeing in the distance to her left that there were four figures that were approaching; a quartet containing a small nun, a smallish figure within that nun's arms as well as a cat and-

Him.

"It's good motor skills! You may as well obtain some usefulness Index! You too Othinus! Neither of you can cook so the only thing that I can imagine you doing is nothing more than hitting people! Especially you Othinus! I remember that home run you did with my head before you revived me! What the hell was that about you sadist!?"

"You were my enemy at the time you dumbass! Did you want me to show you a world where they was nothing but junk food in order to make you die from overeating!?"

"Overeating…"

"I-Index! Please snap out of it! I-If you think about the impossible given my budget then the only thing that's going to suffer will be my head at the end of the day! So don't give her extra ideas Othinus!"

"Then why are you telling us to do this Touma?!"

"Wait. You aren't going to load me in the dispenser as some sort of payback are you!? I've already had to deal with his caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!" The smallish figure screamed as the calico cat swatted the smallish figure's body with its paws, each impact causing the smallish form to tremble in fear.

"S-Sphynx?! Stop that!" 'He' shouted as he tried to grab the small cat from the nun's arms as he looked at both the nun and smallish figure. "And as for why I brought you here-"

"You shouldn't need to explain yourself."

The figures all turned towards the person that had spoken, Shokuhou finding that it was herself. Why had she spoken when she had kept a distance all this time? What worth was there in this action?

She did not know but she found herself continuing with her words.

"He merely wants to show you something that they haven't seen before. There is not much time for things like this so the fact that he is going to ensure your happiness with a new experience is an experience in itself. There are many people that want to do that. With parents, friends, lovers and crushes. But they can't, because of numerous circumstances. So embrace the fact that you can right now. Embrace the fact that there are probably people with high jealous ability of what you have that they cannot attain themselves."

Shokuhou stopped as she looked at the figures that were staring at her with expressions that were hard to determine however Shokuhou felt that intruding this far was far enough.

"I apologise for my interruption. But that is what I feel. Sorry and have a nice day." She turned without a word, hearing the excited voices of the people behind her that she had encouraged with her own words.

Yes.

Her own words that reflected her own heart.

In the end, even though that boy could not even see her or remember her anymore, she still had trouble in maintaining that façade around him. Was that how she really felt? Was that what was hidden in her heart this entire time?

Was she still longing for something that could not be?

"Hah. I guess I really do have some great selfish ability."

"That's fine though you know."

A voice behind her made her turn suddenly, seeing that boy that had managed to leave his group and make his way over to where she was.

He pointed behind him.

"Thanks for that. They might not get it but I think that trying to experience something normal is good given everything we get up to these days."

There were so many things that Shokuhou wanted to say. There were so many things that she wanted to do and experience with this boy once again however she knew that they could not be in this one moment.

This was an illusion that had been broken long ago and in its place the illusion of loneliness with the chance of never being able to express her true feelings towards anyone again.

But that was something that she had caused herself.

And it was her curse to bear.

"No worries. I was merely speaking what was on my mind." Shokuhou answered with a perfect smile that would have made any boy hers.

"Really?" asked the boy as he glanced down towards the emblem on her uniform, although given its location there were perhaps other things that he could be staring at.

His question hung in the air and before Shokuhou could say anything, the boy added in whatever was coming at the end.

"Well, then if you have time do you think you want to join us for some practice?"

"…Eh?"

Shokuhou's mind went blank as she tried to register what it was that the boy had said. What….was he saying? There was no way that he should remember her whatsoever so where was this request coming from? She wanted to peer into her mind however rejected the thought as soon as it appeared, given her personal rule.

Even though he did not remember her, he was still him. And there was no changing that so why had he asked her? What was the purpose?

Was there a chance that he-

"When you were talking before, you said that there were others that might be jealous of what we have. I…know that all too well. But at the same time, I think that although we might be strangers, it might be something that I can help fill. I understand if you say no. I mean, we've just met each other. But still, if you want to, you know-" The boy tried to sound causal however his attempt went sourly, resorting to him scratching the back of his head and giving a small chuckle.

Yet-

"Yes."

The boy blinked once before looking at Shokuhou.

"Um…..yes? Yes what? Yes you understand or yes-?"

"Yes. I would like to join you very much. I'd be happy to join you in fact." Shokuhou felt something crawl onto her lips, a smile that perhaps was one that she hadn't truly felt in a while. It appeared on her face as naturally as her façade did with others in the case of that boy and that smile was mirrored on the boy's face.

"Really? That's great! Do you know much about-"

"Ha ha. Nothing whatsoever. I had a great teacher once. But…he sort of stopped teaching me for various reasons. He got into an accident of sorts and hasn't recovered." Shokuhou found herself being painfully honest and once again felt as though the façade that she put up was sometimes crushed in the presence of this boy.

"Really? Well, I hope you're OK with me being a replacement." The boy laughed once before looking at Shokuhou and sticking out his hand.

"Kamijou Touma." he said with his extended hand.

Shokuhou merely looked at the hand, thinking about the possible choices that she had in this one moment. Was this right? Was this a dream that was nothing more than a cruel joke in order to torment her as she lost the person that she had wanted to be with so much?

Or was it coincidence? Was the possible chance that this moment was real?

That in this City of science where fate and luck was not real, miracles could possibly exist?

She knew it was selfish but right now, she did not care. What had she wanted?

Just as that boy had said, she had wanted that gap within her to be filled, even though it was a gap that would constantly empty as he forgot her. But even though that was the case, she had wanted that gap to be filled. She had wished for such even though she knew that nothing would come from it.

And-

There was only one thing that Shokuhou Misaki could do at the end of the day when faced with such a choice. One thing that her entire being told her to do with this boy that was known as Kamijou Touma, his pointy hair and all.

She took his hand and shook his hand.

"Shokuhou Misaki. And I am extremely pleased to meet you….Kamijou-sensei."

* * *

**[1] I actually noticed that 'fox words' is a term that is only mentioned in OT 1. Of course, it is the previous Touma's reference to pretending to be nice but I guess it is one of those subtle things that tells the difference between current Touma and previous Touma.**

**I hope that you enjoyed this though. In terms of when this was written, this would be around the time when NT 11 was written. But I really hope that you enjoyed it for those that did not read it previously.**

**If you wanted to know what the reason behind the name of this project, it'd probably be because that in this case, any character can make an appearance, regardless of what context they are in or how they are portrayed in the novel or other mediums. In the novels, the Between The Lines aspects is usually reserved for breaks and changes of perspectives and I wanted to show that outside of the world of Index, lives still go on.**

**And how those lives do so is up to you. As this is not related to A Certain Unknown Level 0, I can really let loose, unless of course, you guys request that there be an aspect or character interaction that was mentioned there that you want expanded here. The only reason that I would really decline would be of course if I wanted to use it as a later plot point so I hope that you give me suggestions to use later on. **

**But as for the status on my main project, I'm slowly writing things as we go and I will definitely update by at least February 2015 time. So please hold out until then!**

**And until the next time.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**I'm on holidays now and in the meantime, while not job searching, you'd be amazed the time on my hands. I have REALLY big hands.**

**But once again, I'll ask the question: Respect ability? Or affection points?**


	2. The Sports Festival

**And here we are once again with this project!**

**To be honest, the first few of these projects are something that you've already read. But at the same time, I hope for those that did not save them still read them and enjoy them as they come along in droves. These sort of things are haphazard and I'll probably think of along the way but a sort of semi-way to tackle how the characters interact with each other before they appear in my main project.**

**But something to note; these one-shots are usually going to be separate to each other, that is to say the events in each are probably going to be non-canon to another one. Unless of course there is a probably convenience in re-using them, it means that I can just keep on using and re-using different characters in different situations. This also means that if you liked a certain interaction and wanted to see it in a different light, then just send me a request be it through review or PM and I'll see what I can do.**

**Usually with my other project there was an aspect of understanding who the focus is, for the most part the 'characters' will be unknown unless you read the chapter. Of course maybe some will have Touma but that is not a rule, after all, this project runs on what you guys want after all! So once again, if you want to see something in here that you think you will enjoy then send it in.**

**But apart from that, I would truly like to thank, once again, my beta-reader PokeRescue18. Without his contribution, for those that wanted to re-read these stories, it would not have been possible. But I suppose we will have to see just how popular this series ends up right? I doubt it will be the same as the other projects but there we go!**

**And I'd also like to thank the reader once again. Whether you just found this, reviewed it or whatever, I want to truly thank you for giving me the chance to express these ideas to you through this medium. Thank you once again.**

**But enough from me.**

**Enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark**

* * *

Those Who Stand in the Shadows. _Entering_the_Light._

Himegami Aisa l-

"Wait. Did we really start this one-shot with 'Himegami Aisa'?!" Kamijou Touma yelled at the narration with an expression of shock and awe as he truly didn't realise that he in turn had destroyed the entire point of starting with that one sentence.

"Himegami! Look, look! It's your….eh? I realise that you're still in a wheelchair but where did you hide that police batooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn?!" Kamijou let out that yell as he convulsed on the ground due to the electricity that surged through the baton and entered his body, twitching in a manner that did not seem safe at all.

"The evil has been purged. Continue o great narrator." Himegami pressed the button the police baton, sending sparks down the shape of it and there were no arguments for safety reasons.

Himegami Aisa looked up the sky above her, sighing slightly as the wind ruffled her long black hair.

The date was September 21st.

It was the third day of the Daihaseisai but even so, the energy that filled the air was so static that one could almost touch it. Parents, students, teachers, Judgment and Anti-Skill ran frantically all around Academy City, different stores, especially the small souvenir stores that Academy City had set up around the Districts being perhaps one of the major attractions.

Whether it be because of the fact that there was so little security, different parties around the world truly wanted to take a hold of the opportunities that the festival created whether they be from rival agencies in the outside world or even magicians that existed in a world that was even further separated from that.

Himegami still felt as though the energy in the air was something that was sucked from others, especially her as she found herself sitting in the wheelchair that the hospital in District 7 had provided her after her encounter with one 'Route Disturb' Oriana Thomson two days ago.

But even though she said that, sitting and doing nothing in the hospital that she was resting in her perhaps made her energy disappear even faster. With nothing to do, endless boredom took a hold and gripped around her tightly as she tried to find something to do, procrastination then taking hold and twisting her mind and will to do something into nothingness.

She truly hated doing nothing, especially when it was _the _Daihaseisai however at that same token, there was nothing that she could have done.

And that was when Kamijou Touma had come to her with an idea just the previous day.

For some reason involving some monster electrical storm that had happened just yesterday where the Windowless Building had been struck by lightning, something that had yet to be explained by the members of Academy City, he had visited the hospital about 'checking his arm' but she did not really understand his reason.

However, at any rate, it was the suggestion that he had given her that let her come towards the location that she was currently at.

Basically it had been (this of course was after Kamijou had joked about her lack of presence and being in a wheelchair meant that she could be a protagonist in a ghost, horror story to which she threw her rubber stress ball at him) that Himegami join one of the events that were open for pairs.

She had not known what he had meant so Kamijou had merely given a quick explanation.

Basically, while the Daihaseisai could be thought as an avenue for espers showing off the powers and in turn becoming walking, talking advertisements for Academy City, it was first and foremost a sports festival. While one might be injured and physically unable to participate in tasks that they normally would have, there were special events for such people; Paralympic events that allowed those that sat in the shadows to enter the light and become a part of those that they looked at on the television.

Unlike the other events, there was no pressure towards competing and earning points for one's school, one's participation was enough to earn points for one's school meaning that even though there might be a winner of the event, there were no losers.

It was perhaps the only event where there was probably no chance of being injured heavily and those that participated with those with the injuries and disabilities were either friends or close relatives that either wanted to have a break or experience an Academy City festival at least once.

She had refused initially, she was merely a letdown towards the school and there was nothing that she could actually contribute properly. If it was an event that meant that points were awarded out of pity, it was something that Himegami did not want. If anything, it would only serve to reinforce her position of isolation and staying in the background.

Even though Fukiyose Seiri, perhaps her best friend within A Certain high School had offered to be her partner for the race, she had still refused. Even though she would a part of the festival, what would change? It would be here next year and Himegami was sure that even next year, her opinion of the matter would not change.

But then Tsukuyomi Komoe had intervened, signing up Himegami Aisa and her partner for a race that she herself did not want to be a part of. Why was it that she had to participate in such a thing that she did not want to?

Given that she was powerless to stop Komoe-sensei from dragging her out of the hospital in her wheelchair and gym uniform, she did not think that there would be any point whatsoever when it came towards competing in the race that she had been signed up for without her permission.

And then she had seen her partner.

"So? Are you ready? Although the race doesn't start for the next few minutes, it's better if we actually get to the starting line head of time."

Kamijou Touma picked himself off the ground and walked around to the back of her wheelchair, pushing her through the field that the two of them found themselves in, a large oval that circulated around and around the stadium that they were in, bleachers and large stands surrounding them as they made their way to the starting line.

Himegami merely watched the other competitors, people that were in the same position as she was in; people in wheelchairs and others that had other disabilities, the blind and those that had a hard time standing up as they tried to get to the same position that Kamijou and Himegami were heading to.

"Was it really a good idea?" Himegami asked that open question without expecting an answer as Kamijou looked over towards those that she was looking at. "Even though I can regain what it was that I lost does that mean that I should participate here even though they probably have something that I haven't even considered in my peaceful life?"

Kamijou continued to walk with Himegami in front of him as he watched the others that were trying to best that they could to reach the starting line, being assisted by their partners and animals that allowed them to move forward.

"I can't really say." remarked Kamijou. "I'm sure that if I were in their shoes, I might have some kind of desire or jealously towards people like you and me who are able to live our lives with whatever it is that they have lost. However at the same time, I'm sure that they have their own personal ideals and judgments that push them forward. And right now, those ideals and will inside them is pushing them towards competing, not for their schools or because it's the Daihaseisai, but because they have been given the chance."

Kamijou stopped and Himegami turned her head and looked towards the boy who was smiling towards her.

"And going easy on them when they want the chance to compete isn't something that we should do Himegami. They wanted to participate with everything that they have. So I think that we should do the same. If we don't we'd be trampling on the wishes of those that you yourself are considering."

Kamijou moved forward as Himegami watched those that she had considered, looking at her own legs and the condition that she found herself in. She found it hard to move without pain but was truly trying to win in the face of their competition the right thing to do? She herself had not considered the fact that there were others that wanted to stand in the sunlight.

Was this her chance to do so?

Was this her opportunity to do something that she was ultimately proud to be doing?

"But why are you here?" asked Himegami. "I thought you wanted to sit out and let Fukiyose do all of the work."

"Ha ha. The past few days for me have been hell. Seriously. I wanted to sit out however Komoe-sensei asked me if I wanted to be your partner for this race. So I said yes." Kamijou stopped at the starting line, sitting down next to Himegami in the sun.

"You said yes? Even though you didn't want to do it yesterday?" asked Himegami.

"Hmm? No, I just thought that you would rather someone else than this misfortune Kamijou-san. But at the same time, I want to make it up to you Himegami. I don't expect you to go along with my selfishness but at the same time, I want to do this at least for you." said Kamijou as he looked at the other competitors line up next to them.

The race was starting soon meaning that the bleachers and stands began to fill, the noise around them increasing however at the same time, Himegami Aisa felt as though the words that Kamijou was saying were louder than the rest of the stadium put together.

Was it because she was listening to him more attentively? Or was it because of the fact that he was saying words that were meant for her and only her?

So Himegami asked only one question.

"Why? Why would you do that for me? Aren't I just…baggage?"

Himegami asked one question towards Kamijou that she had asked only yesterday towards a small nun who had once comforted her in her hospital room. She had received an answer, an answer that had truly soothed her heart however that in itself was only the tip of the comforting iceberg. What would the whole say? What would the person who made her question that say towards her question?

What she didn't expect was an immediate answer.

"Of course not. You're no one's baggage Himegami. You're someone that truly wanted to save someone that you did not know, someone that you will probably never even meet." He pointed towards the British Puritan Cross, a cross shape of a Walking Church that still hung around her neck with his left hand.

"Your ability was Deep Blood. But even so, you wanted to protect those vampires who have their own lives with your own two hands. In that sense, I think that perhaps you are one of the brightest of people Himegami, blinding to a normal high school student like me. And I let you down when I didn't come to you before the night parade started. Even though I promised. Even though you were…"

Kamijou hung his head down for a moment before he moved right in front of Himegami grabbing her by the hands and staring her right in the face.

"So I did this in order to make it up to you Himegami. I don't expect you to think that you'll forgive me for breaking my promise; but at the same time, I want you to enjoy yourself today Himegami. It's because you deserve it. Because you are perhaps the one person today that needs to stand in the sunshine."

Kamijou's words and gaze made Himegami's chest beat faster and the warm touch of his hands made her breathing escalate even further. She wanted to look away and maintain a straight face however felt as though her eyes were fixed towards Kamijou Touma and his presence in front of her.

She wanted them to stay like this for as long as it would last. She wanted to burn this sensation into her mind and make it a part of her in order to truly allow her to never forget this experience.

And then-

It ended.

Kamijou Touma let go of her hands, standing right behind her as if the entire sequence of events that had taken place were merely a chain of events that were something that he had to say towards her.

He probably hadn't thought anything of it however the same could not be said for Himegami. The things that she felt, the feelings that within her heart as she had blessed that one moment were gone and she slowly let her head down as she lamented on one fact.

Although that boy did not know what it was that she was feeling, she had definitely felt it yet that feeling had disappeared. And even though Himegami knew how selfish it was…..

She still felt that it wasn't fair.

A tap on her shoulder brought her back to reality as Kamijou pointed towards a location in the bleachers that made her look towards it, her eyes widening as she saw the sight that was in front of her.

"Hi-me-ga-mi! Hi-me-ga-mi!" Numerous people stood in the bleachers, Tsukuyomi Komoe, Tsuchimikado Motoharu, Index and Fukiyose Seiri as they cheered from the bleachers, a number of them holding signs above their heads that said numerous things such as 'Aisa for Asia!' and 'Himegami is the Princess of Life!' and another ridiculous one that read 'Moe!' in probably 18 different languages however the two on the field mainly ignored that one as the probable writer was fawning over the sight of tights and girls in gym uniforms.

"What…..are they doing?" asked Himegami as she looked towards the bleachers. She did not understand. She recognised what they were doing and who they were doing it for however at the same time she did not realise that weight of what they were doing.

Why were they there? In fact, who were they cheering for? She knew the answer to both questions however hearing them from herself in terms of an answer did not serve towards answering the question fully.

She had been in the hospital this whole time. She had silently been sitting in the room where there had been no one but herself so there was no need to go this far. There was no need whatsoever. Yet…yet….yet!

"They're here for you obviously. There's no way that we would abandon a classmate and friend. I thought that you knew that. You might be a transfer student but it's like you were here the whole time."

"…" Himegami was silent as she looked towards the crowd, at the cheery movements and their waves as some of them noticed that she was looking at them. She watched as some of them tried to make a human pyramid with Komoe-sensei and Index on the top before security asked them to stop which they also had a break up a brawl between Aogami Pierce and Tsuchimikado that Fukiyose seemed eager to break up.

Those were classmates and her precious friends. They were those that she could most likely count on at the end of the day when things had not gone her way or failed her when she was down. And perhaps the person that was strongest in that regard was-

"Hmm? If you want to smile you need to do so more openly." Himegami slightly turned towards Kamijou as he smiled towards her. She frowned at his remark and he pointed towards his own lips.

"You smile too softly. You do so with only a small curve. I'd like to see you smile just once Himegami. Smile purely. I'm sure you'd gain a lot of points because of that. In fact it would add to your personality."

"Oh hohohoho. So are you saying that I am someone without presence?"

"Ah…..Himegami-san? Please come out of that depressive state that you have entered. L-Look the race is about to start! Hmm? But where are these guys?"

Kamijou and Himegami turned towards the space that was to their left, an empty spot between them and the contestant next to them. As it was a Paralympic event, it was a simple race that involved 5 laps around the stadium, nothing too strenuous or competitive which was just perfect given the competitors.

It was nothing special and easy points however the hearts and contribution of those that were not usually the ones that entered these types of contests was perhaps the brightest thing that could be seen in this one moment.

Still at the same time, the space next to them made both Himegami and Kamijou feel somewhat bad for the person that was supposed to be there. The fact that they had not made it, for whatever reasons, when they had openly wished to participate hardened both of their hearts in order to give it their all in a form of respect to those that could not usually compete.

The organiser of the event stood at the front and explained the rules towards those that were at the starting line, many of the partners that the participants had attained explaining it those that could not hear.

As already noted, Kamijou still felt that the rules put him and Himegami at a disadvantage. Although it was just a simple race, there was a focus upon those that were disadvantaged doing the best that they could given the circumstances, and as a result, esper powers were banned against the competitors.

Their partners however were a different issue. As they were merely supporting and only there as either moral support or to assist those that were disabled, esper powers were allowed to be used against the partners only, given a number of factors were met.

For instance, one could not attack a partner of a blind contestant that was leading them around nor could they attack someone who was helping someone with muscular dystrophy in a wheelchair. Also, those that could attack, even if they were disabled, were allowed to and Kamijou was one of the ones that was forced to put up his hand as being branded a 'target'.

"Honestly though." Complained Kamijou as he watched the others that were deemed as targets as well as other competitors, eyeing those that could be attacked. "I hope that they don't hit you though Himegami. Although I have only one right hand, I can't hit two things at once so it'll be hard trying to protect myself when you're the priority."

"Don't worry. As long as we get through it, that's all that matters."

Whether Himegami said that in order to give Kamijou the idea that she wanted this race over with or whether she truly wanted to show her respect towards those that were participating was unknown however the remark that she gave only resulted in Kamijou placing his hand on her head.

"Yeah. Let's do our best. Even if we have to face one of the strongest espers, we'll still make it through this race!"

Himegami said nothing as she recalled the touch of his hand as Kamijou gripped the handles of the wheelchair tighter, tensing his entire body as Himegami reached her hands for the wheels of her wheelchair.

They both were ready for this. They were surely going to make it through this race and prove, not only to themselves but also to those around them that the will that they held was just as strong as them. They would do this as a team, together as they left the darkness that side characters were forced to embrace.

They were the protagonists now.

And Himegami Aisa was going to make sure that she did her best to fit the role.

"Ready….."

She tensed her hands. She had always felt, ever since she had seen her family perish in front of her eyes that she would be alone. She had survived and she had truly thought that no one else could save her in her time of need. That had been the previous Himegami Aisa.

But then she had died. She had died in the arms of the boy that was standing over her like a guardian angel and those arms had held her tightly as it ripped the death from her and saved her. It had been this boy that allowed her this race. Even though she felt as though her shy personality was something that make her weak in the eyes of many with stronger personalities, she had set that aside just for now.

Because she has ascended and was ready to grip the role as a protagonist.

"Set…"

She leaned forward, her bangs covering her vision slightly but she did not care. The exhilaration of a start that had yet to happen filled her, slowly coursing through her body as-

"WAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!"

"Ah? Who's that? Oh, right the final contestant. I was told that you were being late so I hope that all rules were explained to you."

"Yeah, they were, they were. I'm only here for the points anyway."

A gagging sound came from Kamijou Touma's throat as he heard the voice, Himegami finding that it sounded somewhat familiar, although more livelier than when she had heard it before. Was this the contestant that was filling the space next to them? If so, why were they so late? And who were-

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! What the hell are you doing here you idiot!?" Misaka Mikoto yelled out towards the boy with a look that was both concern and rage as she turned to look at the boy's right arm.

"Nooooooooooooooooo! Even though I said to face one of the strongest espers, I was joking dammit! I have no intention of racing with this overly competitive tsundere!" Kamijou yelled and Himegami turned to see the uniform of the Tokiwadai Middle School next to her.

Her eyes went wide as she recognised the person that was standing, she had met her on August 20th however the girl herself showed no sign of recognising Himegami. Was she really that invisible?

The other girl, the one that was racing, was in a wheelchair must more fancy that the one Himegami was in. Her twintails and uniform, as well as a Judgment armband gave her the impression that she had suddenly been asked to compete in this race however at the same time, held an expression of pure contempt as she looked towards Kamijou.

"Onee-sama. Why are we here with this ape!?" Shirai Kuroko spat out those words towards Kamijou and he merely hung his head as he looked towards the blue sky.

"Hahhhhhhhhhhh…" Kamijou sighed. "The sky is so blue yet my future is so dark. Why are you guys even here anyway!? This is Himegami's one-shot! H-Himegami? How is it my fault that Misaka and Shirai came here? And seriously! Where were you hiding that police batoooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn?!"

Even though it could not match Mikoto's output in terms of electricity, Kamijou still felt as though there was strength behind the voltage that was unleashed in the baton that was unlike what he had experienced with Mikoto as he rolled on the floor, sparks flying off him.

"A-Anyway….." The announcer said that remark despite the fact that Kamijou was clearly not ready, holding up the cap gun in order to start the race, an action that made Kamijou stand up, dirt and dust on his uniform as he reached for Himegami's handlebars.

"Ready…."

"So, are you here to earn more points for the penalty game too?" asked Mikoto with a frown on her face, resulting in Shirai, Kamijou and Himegami to turn towards her.

Her classmate's expression of horror in her face regarding the topic was evidently the reason why she had turned however it was Kamijou and Himegami's joint thought that was different.

The middle school student, no, this side character was merely here for the convenient points. While it was possible that she was racing with her friend, she was not racing with the same will in her heart that the high school students had within them.

And that was what she lacked in order to allow her greatness in this event.

There was a winner, however there were no losers. But taking things only for the points was not the way to complete this race. It was holding in high regard the will to be a part of something greater, a part of the Daihaseisai and to leave the abyss of ignorance and departure from interacting with others. Himegami Aisa had understood that in the moments before she had started racing but even so, she felt that this understanding within her gave her the will and ability to do what she could not have done before.

Even if it was small, she would participate to her fullest. Even if people would look at her and think that it was out of character, she would be brave and overcome her shyness in order to show her respect.

These people were owed that much.

She turned her head towards Kamijou and he nodded towards her, silent words filling their gazes as they turned back towards the track that they had to run 5 laps around.

"Are you going to-" asked Himegami to which Kamijou gripped the handlebars, the will and strength that filled them passing through and entering the body of Himegami Aisa. She was prepared. As was the person that she could be glad to call her partner in this race.

Together they would fight the evil that was necessary and ensure that the needed respect was given.

"Yeah. Sorry Himegami but I seriously think they'll be more to this race than I think. I'll try and be done as soon as possible before I can come back to you. Sorry."

"No….it needs to be done."

"Ready….."

"Hey, what are you guys talking about?" asked Mikoto as she turned towards the high school students before they both turned towards her and Shirai.

"Set…"

These people were only here for the points and had not realised the basic foundation of the race itself. Allowing them to race for that reason meant that there would possibly be a winner that only wanted to win. While there were other reasons that they had towards racing, the one thing that had stood out had been that one question from the middle schooler.

A question that Himegami could not stand towards those that had worked hard in order to reach this stage.

She looked towards the bleachers and her friends, her fellow comrades as they cheered.

Yes. She was sure that she was making the right decision within her. No, the right decision to make sure that she could allow those whose feelings she understood to sit in the light.

She reached for her wheels of her wheelchair, tensing her body, a feeling unlike one that she had ever felt before filling her.

_This was surely what it must feel like._

That one thought she had took a hold of her and coursed through her entire being.

_This is….what it feels to be a protagonist!_

"Go!" The cap gun went off and Himegami moved forward _without her partner assisting her to do so_. However that was the silent plan that they had come up with. This was her race that she understood. And for those that did not understand-

"I'm not here for points! I'm here to unleash my potential as grand commander Kamijou! Take this! Sorry in advanceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Kamijou from behind her, kicked up a large amount of dust with his feet and sprayed it into the faces of both Mikoto and Shirai, their expressions shocked before most of it landed on Mikoto, with some particles entering Shirai's face. They coughed violently before Kamijou ran towards Mikoto, placing one leg between hers and causing her to fall to the ground where she landed without even having the chance to take a breath.

She continued to cough however heard one voice that came from above her.

"You're not much of a Level 5 if that was all it took!"

That one statement caused Mikoto's rational to crumble within an instant.

"Youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!"

Sparks flew from her bangs and went in all directions close to her however none of them reached their target as said target held his right hand in front of him with a proud expression on his face.

"You want to settle things right here?! I'm up for thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttt!"

"E-Eh? I knew it would work to get you away from the race but this is just too effectiveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Such misfortuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeee!"

Kamijou broke into a run, away from the field a Mikoto immediately gave chase, sparks flying from her bangs as she chased like a predator after her prey. But even so, she was not alone.

"H-How dare you lay your hands on my Onee-sama you ape! That is my role and my role solely! Come back and here and face your punishment!"

Shirai entered the fray, metal needles filling her hands as she too gave chase, the screams of the boy that had taken the bullet slowly leaving the air as he escaped from the stadium while being hunted like a wanted man.

Himegami Aisa was halfway through the first lap when the screams had left altogether. Her hands hurt and she could tell that if things would continue to go like this, she would definitely get some blisters on her hands however even so she did not care. She was in fourth position, knocking those that were next to her with her police baton lightly in order to prevent them from advancing yet by that same token, others had taken a hold of other loopholes, numerous esper powers being flung towards her wheelchair, not hitting her directly.

Himegami tried to divert herself and get out of the way however the only way to do so effectively was to painfully stop the wheelchair and spin the wheels in the opposite direction which would thus set her back another position.

However the position did not matter. She could give it her all and that was all that mattered, for her and surely for those that were also participating.

Numerous partners had been taken out by end of the first lap, a lap to which Himegami was in 6th place out of the 19 participants, but even so her determination did not stop merely because she was slowly moving forward, her pace slowing because of pain in her arms but the will and need to continue made her move forward.

Sweat began to cover her body as she moved forward, Deep Blood having to manipulate her police baton between the legs of one of the partners of another participants so that they fell, leaving the participant racing forward as they used their esper power to increase the durability of their arm muscles in order to race ahead of Himegami.

She grit her teeth as some ball of light sailed over her and hit another one of the partners to her immediate right, sending them flying through the air, a slight shockwave hitting Himegami's wheelchair and turning it on its left wheel however she used her entire body, something that was begging her to stop, to slam down the wheel to which she stopped and spun out of control.

Still, she turned, using her arms to forcibly push the wheelchair in its needed correct position, moving forward with needed precision before she reached the end of her second lap, in 3rd place.

Her pace was slowing however not significantly, the need to race and prove that she could do something that was useful, whether it be to herself filling her gut. The sunlight beat against her neck, something that she noticed more than before and the cheers from the crowd entered her ears, something that further encouraged her to move.

She looked up, towards one of the blimps that were filming the race, seeing that coming behind her was another esper that was trying to take hold of the loopholes in the system, attacking the wheel of her wheelchair once again. The announcer was saying something about a fight that was happening between fallen partners and the shouts from her classmates immediately made her tense.

A faint, horrific memory filled her as she moved her wheelchair forward, a memory of when the vampires had come. Their movements of precision and the action of hunting meant one thing; when it came towards a moving target, one had to anticipate where they would move. Himegami looked up at the blimp, noticing the lanes around her before she turned her wheelchair to the side, going into the lane to the left, one that she knew would be empty.

A ray of energy passed right through the spot she had once been in, heading off into the distance where it clipped another partner of one of the participants, causing said partner to be blown through the air before he landed on the ground, a soft landing due to the water manipulation power that he had.

Himegami entered her lane once more, however she had already been passed once, the water manipulation esper firing a string of water towards the person that had attacked Himegami in the first place, a move that meant that behind Himegami a 'line' formed due to the water that was being thrust towards the partner.

She slightly paled as she realised that perhaps this competition was more competitive than both her and Kamijou had initially anticipated however this was Academy City's Daihaseisai. She doubted that it would be anything else without the use of esper powers left, right and centre.

She continued her trek, finally managing to get her third lap over and done with, albeit in 8th place.

Her fourth lap was perhaps her most difficult, mainly because of the fact that her arms were burning and an aching like she couldn't believe filling her arms and body. Given her injuries that she had received, courtesy of Oriana, there was probably no way that she should have continued however the energy within her pushed her forward, an energy that Himegami knew herself would probably end at the end of the race.

Still, continuing to push forward and using the momentum that she had gathered to allow her arms to rest for a moment she managed to continue however questions filled her mind as she passed by the fallen esper partners that surrounded her. As a result, only those that had been deemed 'not targets' were still standing but even then they were limping rather heavily despite the fact that they had been protected under the rules.

Still, as Himegami was passed once again, she saw the escalation and joy in the face of someone that she was sure was blind. She saw the sweat covering the face of a deaf esper and the yells of those with other disabilities to go faster to their partners or push themselves further than what should have been.

Who were they trying to prove themselves to? Who were they trying to impress with their actions? Who were they trying to overcome?

Himegami Aisa knew the answer as soon as the questions came to her; it was obvious. They were trying to prove to themselves that they were the same as those with powers, the same as those that had sight, hearing or movement in their limbs. They were trying to prove to themselves that they were the same as those that had everything that they did not.

Perhaps it was because Himegami had once lost everything that she realised that fact, pushing herself even harder. Was that to prove to herself that she could do it? That she could truly ascend and place herself in the crowd that she felt she could not ever reach with her own two hands?

She had failed to save anyone so could she truly accept that same world that others could join in as freely as they could?

Could she truly prove to herself that she was more than simply Himegami Aisa, 'Deep Blood'? Was she nothing more than a killing machine?

She truly wanted to be more than that. But could she really?

She felt her pace slow and as a result, she passed through the fourth lap, ending at a mere 12th place as shouts entered her vision and her arms burned. She could not feel the fingers on her own hands and she looked down at them, seeing that small droplets of her blood that covered her hands that fell to the ground.

She paused as she looked at them, realising one thing about them. If those had been the injuries that she had sustained then what about the others?

She did not even have to check; she merely looked at the ground around her, small droplets of red covering some of the track in front of her.

These people….they were pushing themselves just as hard as she was, for perhaps the same reason in their hearts as they tried to achieve something within themselves that they could look proud towards.

And she had stopped moving, that same energy still coursing through her. She had made a promise within herself in order to prove to herself that there was still a chance for her to ascend.

And there was no way that she was going to let things stop here.

She gripped the wheel of her wheelchair and tried to push forward however she would not move. Stunned, she looked down at the wheel, noticing however the entire metal had completely warped. She did not know how it had happened however the fact of the matter was that there was no way that she could move, given her current state.

Himegami Aisa had stopped.

"Ah."

She felt her mind go blank as she looked at the wheel and the fact that she was not going anywhere. She had started this race because she had truly wanted to attain something that she had thought was out of her grasp. She had experienced a thrill that she had never experienced before and it had been lost within an instant.

Another participant passed her and she let her arms drop towards the side, her heavy breathing filling the air as she looked up towards the sky and the faint breeze that tickled her skin and made her even more aware of the cut that was on her hand.

What had she expected?

"So….I truly am a girl that can only go unnoticed after all."

She let out those words of defeat and she slumped in her wheelchair, the sounds of shouting slowly getting softer and softer in her ears as she closed her eyes, letting her fatigue wash over her in a wave that was never ending…..

"*pant**pant**pant* You *pant* really think so? You still have a role to complete *pant* Himegami."

Hiemgami's eyes shot open as she turned around in her wheelchair, seeing the sweaty form of Kamijou Touma standing behind her, things that looked like twigs, leaves and some blood covering his body. He walked up to her and gripped her handlebars without hesitation as he grinned as she looked at her.

"You still have a race to finish and I have a promise to keep. And I'll be damned if I'm going to allow Himegami Aisa to lose her time in the limelight!"

Kamijou pushed forward however the warped wheel of the wheelchair immediately made him trip on his own feet as he tried to push an immovable object, throwing the boy forward where he slammed onto the ground in a cloud of dust.

Himegami merely have a sigh towards the boy.

"There's nothing you can do. We have both stopped. The sunshine was perhaps a bit too blinding for someone like me this time." Her hollow words filled Kamijou's ears as he lay on the ground and there was the sound of dirt moving as Kamijou clenched his right fist, dirt collecting in his grasp.

He slowly stood up, Himegami watching the boy however she could not see his expression on his face, even where she was sitting.

"Himegami…where were you injured exactly? Right now where does it hurt?" he asked her to which her mind went blank.

What….was he asking? And why did it matter anyway?

She did not know however she had no intention of not answering the boy.

"My entire body. My chest feels rather constrained but I don't really think I can really move."

Kamijou was silent for a moment as another contestant passed them however he merely gave a remark that completely threw her off guard.

"_Then this makes things difficult_. So sorry!"

Before Himegami could even say anything, Kamijou reached for the back of her neck with his hand, using his other hand to reach for underneath her knees as he lifted her up, the resulting position meaning that Himegami was lifted up like a newly wedded bride.

Her face turned red as she stammered words that had no meaning as she looked towards Kamijou, whose own cheeks were flushed red from embarrassment as well however his gaze towards the track that they had yet to complete.

"We both wanted to do something in order to satisfy something within ourselves Himegami. And you made it this far! So I'm not merely going to let you sit back when you have almost reached that stage that you wanted to!"

Kamijou kicked off the ground, dust spraying underneath his feet as he moved, pressing Himegami closer to his chest in order to prevent her from moving too much within his arms and as a result, adding additional pressure to her wounds.

Himegami's went even redder at the action and her heart beat faster however even so, the action itself and the fact that she found herself in a position she would never have dreamed of as they continued through the race.

And as they crossed the finish line, Himegami Aisa knew one thing.

It had been worth it. Even though it was a small thing, Himegami was both sure and glad about one thing.

That this was her moment as a protagonist and she would never take it back for anything in the world.

* * *

"I can't believe you were disqualified you goddamn idiot! Did you even read the rules?! You may have never have entered in the first place!"

Fukiyose Seiri yelled towards Kamijou Touma as he sat seiza style with numerous bruises on his face due to the punishment that Fukiyose had given him due to the fact that he had touched Himegami in the way that he had.

Of course, given the fact that Kamijou had left the arena and then directly assisted towards Himegami's crossing the line without her doing anything, they had of course been disqualified. The Tokiwadai duo had as well however since they had never participated in the first place, that was a given.

As for Himegami, as she sat in the replacement wheelchair, her gaze looked towards the sun in the sky and the beating heat that came down.

This had been her day in the sun. She had felt an energy that she had never felt before course through her and it had given her an experience that she was sure that she could only find in Academy City.

Footsteps came towards her and she turned, seeing Kamijou scratching his head as he laughed sheepishly, placing himself on the ground next to Himegami.

"Well, sorry about that. We ended up not really doing anything. But did you get the point of entering in the race?"

"….Yes. There was something more than the points. I…realise that now." She turned towards the boy that was next to her and did something that came naturally towards her given that moment.

She smiled.

Kamijou blinked once at the expression that Himegami Aisa was giving, the small curling of the lips before he returned it, the two of them leaning back and feeling the sun on their faces. They both knew that something had been gained in the race that the Daihaseisai, even though they had been disqualified.

Himegami Aisa had managed to grab something that she could not have before. She had a chance and she had grabbed it with full force, and it had left Himegami with an impression that she was sure would not fade.

She had been given a role as a protagonist with that boy that had once saved her life.

She had seized that role that played it until the curtain had lowered.

However she still smiled. Himegami Aisa felt truly glad in the situation that she was in, still feeling a beating of her heart from that energy that had passed into her from that boy.

Because, just like an illusion, the shadows had parted and she had experienced the light on her face.

She might return to the position that she had once held however even so, she had managed to hold onto something small for a fraction of time.

And there was nothing wrong with that.

But the stage had yet to be emptied. The two players had yet to leave and part ways, only to recommence at a later date. She still had that small light dancing in the air that she could grasp in order to play that role again, a small light that was right next to her.

And that was why she smiled.

Because as long as that light was there, she realised…

She could always relive the role as a protagonist.

* * *

**And there it is! If you notice that the chapter name is something that does not reveal the characters involved but rather the 'story' that revolves around the nature of the one-shot I felt as though it was more appropriate. After all, these are the stories of those in the ToAru universe and I really just wanted to capture what it might be around rather than the characters that involved them.**

**Anyone can contribute to this though which is what makes this project rather fun, which also allows me to perhaps come up with points for the characters that I write about in my main project. But that is enough from me for now.**

**After all, I truly don't want to write off Himegami as a protagonist! I think she deserved the lime light in this situation and to that extent, I really believe that I really captured the 'Friendship' (to Touma anyway) aspect of those characters that were introduced so long ago in OT 2 albeit the fact that one of them has faded into the background somewhat.**

**So I truly hoped that you enjoyed this and look forward to the next chapter.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please.**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**Many of you know what comes next though right?**


	3. The Endless Hell - World FSN

**Another one-shot right here!**

**This was perhaps one of the longer one and for obvious reasons. After all, NT 9 really sort of created a 'gap' for Touma's hell that I sort of tried to fill in this. So with the attempt to do so, I tried to create this sort of project, using the characters from a variety of sources. But to be honest, the fight scene in this short was perhaps one of the hardest simply because of the nature of Othinus.**

**I always find it heard to extend fights when the character can literally rip you to pieces in a second so I really had to think around that point and try to create a situation where Touma might truly 'crack'. Of course this is not a physical battle but rather a mental one, the one that Othinus planned the entire time.**

**Yet for now, I think that if this were to be a proper project, then this would definitely be the Part 2 of the Prologue, simply because of the 'universe' that it is set in and the main character that that is present here. Although I do hope that these one-shots don't overdo it in length.**

**Simply enjoy and await the next update. I don't want to let you guys down after all!**

**I'd also to thank my beta reader PokeRescue18 for his contribution. After all with 3 chapters in a few days, I really think that I overworked him so I truly want to thank him for putting up with this sort of unreasonable demand for me when I didn't really check with him when I first posted these. So thank you very much.**

**And thank you for those that have actually attempted to board this slow project. At some extent, while there are readers, your enjoyment of the project cannot be determined through simply numbers on a page. So for those that have managed to take things this far for me, I really want to thank you.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Type-Moon or anything that is connected with such. Nor do I own To Aru Majutsu No Index. I am a mere amateur fanfiction writer so either ignore this status update or continue reading the small crossover between Fate/Stay Night and To Aru Majutsu No Index. Nor do I own any of the characters that are mentioned in the 'references'. You'll see what I mean. Although even now, no one has actually gotten all of them right...**

**So enjoy and until the next time we meet.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

Prologue - Part 2: Placement of an Outsider. _Those_Who_Are_Doomed_to_Lose_

"…Ah!?"

Kamijou awoke.

Yet the moment he did, a chill ran up his spine, covering his entire body for a number of reasons. It threatened his entire mind and caused his entire perception of what was going on around him to distort terribly.

He knew exactly what was happening to him. He had been here numerous times, time and time again that he had lost count and could not remember them all but he knew that this position was one that he had been in countless times before.

He felt it within him; the sensation of something slowly eating away at his heart time and time again, slowly chipping away at its form until nothing would remain.

Kamijou Touma knew exactly the reason why this was the case.

After all, he had challenged Magic God Othinus, someone that had created world upon world in order to truly break down Kamijou's willpower and mentality to a state where the smallest push would cause Kamijou to fall into an endless abyss of despair and pain.

Not that it had already arrived.

And this was just one of the many worlds that she had created in order to crush him, one of the reasons why that chill ran up his spine, there being three main reasons for such as he lay on the ground.

He swallowed as an unpleasant sweat ran down his body as he recalled exactly what had happened to him before, in the previous world before everything had been 'reset'. He had died. Not metaphorically or mentally but truly had his heart stop beating and everything about him that truly made up the sensation of 'life' ripped from him.

Because in the last world, Othinus had watched on _as she slowly dunked him into liquid nitrogen, shattering each of his limbs in front of him save for his right hand_.

He had watched as his left hand shattered, frozen pieces of flesh flying in all directions, he had watched as his torso and lower body broke apart like a practical joke, Othinus having increased the sensation of pain within him as he had screamed endlessly as he felt each of his body parts break apart.

Yet he had refused to budge, refused to give into the fact that Othinus was going to win. He had to take back the world that she had destroyed, the world where those that he wanted to be with remained.

Index, Misaka Mikoto, Leivinia Birdway and Lessar.

He had left them all there, at Sargasso, and he was going to take it back no matter what the cost to his mind or body.

The second reason though that sent a chill up his spine was perhaps even more chilling than the memory of his body literally being destroyed.

He could not move.

He tried to move his head from the position that it was in however his body did not respond, the only thing moving being his eyelids, chest as it moved up and down with his breathing and his right hand, something that twitched and clenched as he lay on the ground in the unknown street that he was on.

He tried to move his body from where it was lying in order to try and escape the situation that he was in but it was no use, the third reason as to the chill up his spine revealing itself with a sweet voice that resounded through the empty night in the unknown location, the only illuminating being street lights that caught the being.

"Now, now, that's not going to work."

Magic God Othinus, the villain of the world, sat on top of Kamijou's belly, rising and falling with every breath he took, the lance Gungnir folded over her lap as she sat cross legged while looking at Kamijou with her green, left eye. Her right eye, covered with an eye patch, merely hung in the air as if watching him even though Kamijou knew that there was nothing behind it.

But still, one thought entered his mind as he lay on the ground, unable to move his body apart from his right hand.

"OTHINUS!" Kamijou yelled at the top of his voice, moving his hand in order to try to touch the lance however the right hand would barely even rise, only moving from side to side in a pitiful motion, representative of the struggle that he had made against the God all this time.

Othinus though merely sighed, pointing the lance's tip towards Kamijou's throat, the cold metal piercing his skin slightly as it led to a drop of blood rolling down his neck where he lay as the lance pierced his skin.

"I said that's not going to work. After all, _I've removed all the muscles in your body so if you don't listen your heart will stop soon_."

Othinus's words struck Kamijou right in the heart as he processed what it was that she was saying, coming up with only one response towards her remark.

"Wh…..at?"

"Don't think that these things aren't above me human. I can't remove the ones in your hand for obvious reasons but I am here to tell you only one thing. Killing you time and time again has grown somewhat tedious. In fact, the only thing I'm sure I've accomplished is put you on the path of a masochist. So, I'm doing something different this time. You'll definitely break from this."

She gave an angelic smile however it only added towards the tension that Kamijou had in the situation. He knew that there was no way that things would be over just because of a few hundred deaths. He knew that there was no way that Othinus had revealed her hand yet, even though she had used around 500 decks of cards.

If anything, to her, this was merely the opening act.

She had shown him a world where he was deemed as a villain and a world where he was merely replaced with all the actions in his life being removed and placed within someone else. But how many worlds had he visited from those first two? He had no idea however even so Kamijou was sure of one thing.

She hadn't even remotely begun to get serious and no matter how many times Kamijou saw new worlds or that black labyrinth, he knew that fighting a god was simply impossible as a human.

However, he wanted his world back. He wanted to save everyone that had been so easily killed as Othinus had destroyed it. He wanted to maintain the smiles on the faces that he knew. He wanted to simply return the smiles to their faces!

And that meant that he simply had to defeat this one god.

No matter what it took or damage he received, Kamijou Touma would never give up in that regard. Not when the source of all her power was literally right in front of him!

"Are you listening? Because I'm allowing you one thing. I'm giving you the chance to show off. Surprise me."

"What are you talk…" His jaw suddenly went slack without him even knowing the cause, Othinus merely shaking her head as she realised what it was that was happening to Kamijou.

"I told you didn't I? _I've removed all the muscles in your body_. That's your jaw muscles gone. There's really only one major organ apart from your heart left so pay attention. After all, this is how you're going to die here and you will finally break mentally. Or simply just break. Whichever way you want."

Kamijou listened however felt that it was getting harder and harder to breath, the extra weight that Othinus was providing him meaning that there was no way that it was easy as he knew his lungs would soon stop altogether. He wanted to call her a heavy bitch however felt that he would earn a couple of thousand deaths extra for that so he refrained from doing so.

Not to mention that his jaw could not move.

"But here's the gist of it. Soon, in this world I have granted you, I am going to kill four people. In fact I will give you names in order to make it easier. So do what you do best. Ready?"

Othinus asked her question even though Kamijou could not answer however questions filled his mind. What….the hell was she doing? There was a hint of familiarity towards what she was doing, as if she had tried this before now with a new twist in order to break him however the only thing that he noted was one thing.

Four people were going to die.

Othinus was not joking. She created people like this and then dealt with them easily. These people and their personalities were not real, their entire being was a creation of this Magic God so she could deal with them as she liked, like an artist destroying his works as they were 'failed'.

But these were people. These were actual people and even though they had been created by Othinus, they were merely innocents. They had nothing to do with this battle between them so-!

"Here we go. Pay attention. Emiya Shirou."

Kamijou paled as he felt his lungs fail in that one moment however even so, he wanted Othinus to shut up, to shut her mouth. The moment she spoke their names, no matter who they were, they were a target that Othinus was not merely going to kill. She was simply going to pass over their dead bodies as the life was ripped from their bodies without ceremony.

She was the leader of GREMLIN and the Magic God on top of that. Nothing could stop her from doing what she wanted but even so, Kamijou wanted her to shut up. Even if they weren't real, they were people with lives and personalities, even if they were implanted through changing one's 'point of view'. And these people had nothing to do with-

"Saber."

Kamijou did not know these people. In fact it was questionable whether they were people in the world that he knew or merely creations that Othinus chose to destroy on a whim as she created a new one. But even so, that did not change the fact that these people were in danger and it was all his fault.

At what point had Othinus decided she was going to kill these innocents? When had the idea popped into her head that she would kill others?

And then it hit him.

"Tohsaka Rin."

Was…this the way that she was going to destroy him? Was she going to kill innocents around him as he was powerless to do anything? Was she going to bring their lifeless bodies in front of him and mock him for doing nothing as he slowly died?

She had not done that for people that he had known yet, as his imagination took hold, going from scene to scene for possible ways that Othinus would kill those that were close to him now that she had chosen normal innocents to kill.

Index dying from starvation.

Misaka Mikoto exploding due to an overload of her power.

Accelerator losing control of his power and 'reflecting' his own body until it ripped him apart.

Hamazura Shiage losing simply because he was a 'Level 0'.

Was it going to start here? Was another form of hell going to start here as Othinus slaughtered innocents?!

He wanted to breath heavily however found that his lungs would not allow him, his face going white as it was devoid of air and Othinus let out the last word, Kamijou cursing himself for not being able to stop her.

"Archer."

She immediately disappeared off Kamijou's stomach and movement came towards him, Kamijou suddenly sitting up and grabbing his chest, breathing in and out as wonderful oxygen entered his lungs and allowed him to breath. He could move!

….He….could…..move?

He placed his hands on his heart, looking around frantically for the sight of the Magic God that had disappeared however found no one, frowning at the implication of what was happening.

What the hell was going on? Why would she tell him that she was going to kill someone, only to let him loose in order to attack the world that she had created? He stood up however his legs failed him, shaking.

He didn't know whether this was the repercussion of having his legs destroyed the world previous however at the same time, he felt as though the stress of the ordeal that had yet to end was surely going to hit him soon.

But that had no connection towards the events that were going to pass soon. People were going to die and Othinus was going to kill them. That only meant one thing that Kamijou had to do as the opposing force that had managed to make it this far, fighting her every will and wish that she had ever wanted.

He had to save them.

He had to save those people.

It did not matter whether or not he knew them or whether they were merely puppets or people with their 'points of view' changed. There was no reason for him to abandon them even in this world and thus Kamijou Touma refused to do so. As long as he maintained that…..there was no reason for him to break.

He got onto his knees and stood up, maintaining his balance as he slowly walked towards the nearest street light, the illumination that it was giving in the dark providing the only thing that allowed Kamijou to see down the street that he was on.

But where was he anyway?

Othinus created endless worlds and places however even so, Kamijou had begun to notice the small instances where nothing had truly changed. It was only a guess however the only way to ensure that he was right was to endure this hell for a bit longer in order to get the information that he needed in order to truly analyse Othinus's magic…..and then to defeat her.

And the one thing that he noticed could only be classified as 'accents'. Just as Othinus had told him in the first world that the 'point of view' surrounding him had changed, Othinus had managed to change different 'points of view' by accenting different things and aspects of the world that he lived in.

He had no idea how she was doing it however he had definitely seen it before. All that was needed was to search the memory of-

"Ghhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Kamijou let out a grunt of pain as he held his head, falling to his knees next to the street light as he breathed heavily, terms, names, places and even faces coming in a massive onslaught towards him as he remembered the worlds that Othinus had created that had allowed him to form that very opinion about what it was that she was doing.

There had been a Black Swordsman and a girl named Asuna.

He had failed to save them and they had died.

There had been a boy named Hyoudou in a world filled with angels and demons.

They had all died at the hands of Othinus.

There had been a strange world filled with familiars and a team pair of Hiraga and Louise.

They had all perished the moment that Othinus had decided to burn the world.

There were vampires and some organisation called Hellsing, alchemists and boys in metal bodies, massive metal objects and an exchange student battling them, a girl who had the power to become a god and the human that was reluctantly forced to control her, a boy detective who had been shrunk trying to solve an impossible murder, spirits and a boy whose family ran an alcohol business with those spirits living with him, ninjas in a world that should have gone by, magical girls and witches, a zombie and his necromancer freeloader, time travelling microwaves, death gods and books, a world filled with the strongest man in a butler uniform, dungeons and a boy following a god of poverty, a loner with a quest to find a genuine connection in his world and thousands of other worlds.

Kamijou went through each of them in his head, faces, names and terms flashing by in an onslaught that never seemed to end before it did.

And there was silence.

There was a still silence as Kamijou let his head fall down to the ground, the blackness of the night seeming ever darker than Kamijou remembered. It pulled him in as the remembrance of those that he had failed filled with regret and disbelief.

He….he had truly forgotten all of them. In the chain of the worlds that had come one after another, he had truly forgotten those worlds and those that he said that he would protect. Those that he had failed to do so.

"Ah."

He had managed to do so for the shortest time but with a mere wave of her hand or something even less than that, Othinus had managed to steal all that away in the blink of an eye, leaving only Kamijou remaining after the dust had cleared and the black labyrinth had disappeared once more, replaced with another hell. But even so, Kamijou still hung onto the faces of those that were long gone, the faces of those that he had left because he himself had survived.

Those people were not real and Othinus had destroyed them. But Kamijou had managed to save them once, before the entire premise; the illusion of salvation had been destroyed. He had managed to do so but even then, that had all been ripped away.

A thought came into Kamijou's mind, a dangerous thought that he was sure that he had had before but had never acted on it until now. He had seen things in regards to this thought however had only thought of it as nothing more than a mere distortion of the world that Othinus had created for her own self-satisfaction of seeing Kamijou writhe around in nothing more than pain.

But even so, Kamijou had to know.

He had to make sure.

With trembling hands, he reached for his back pocket where he knew his phone was bringing it out and thankful that he was getting both reception and an Internet signal. That was all that he needed in the end. He opened up a browser and typed in the characters that he needed, each character that he was pressing slowly to appear than the others.

学園都市

Academy City.

His trembling hands resulted in him dropping the cell phone, the screen bending slightly as Kamijou slowly reached for it, the screen facing away from him. All he needed was to have one look. One look was all that was needed in order for Kamijou to determine what it was that he needed to know.

The screen turned to face him, the glow meaning that Kamijou could see everything that he needed.

Those four words seemed to chip away at his heart more than anything else.

_No search results found._

"Ah."

Kamijou's mind went blank as he considered the sight in front of him. What had he been fighting for? A pointless world where no matter what he did, something would always be crushed? A pointless world where no matter what happened, someone would be able to kill everyone that lived in it? A pointless world where those that he cared for and those that he did not know would be killed without him being able to save them?

Did he want a world like that?

No….

Was that the world that he had always been living in?

Something snapped within Kamijou Touma's mind as he grabbed his forehead, crawling into a fetal position and did the only thing that came to mind.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

The scream ripped from his mouth as Kamijou let loose the entire burden that had been placed on his shoulders.

He did not do so because he was afraid. That time had passed. He did so because he had been the only one that had managed to survive, the only one that had managed to make it this far in the world where there were only two constants.

Create.

And destroy.

And Kamijou had gotten the option that he had always possessed but right now, that same option was tugging at his heart. He could not remake the world and compete with the power of creation that Othinus had as well as the destruction that she caused.

He was a mere, pathetic, human high school student and she was a God. There was only one thing that would have resulted from a clash between those two forces.

Kamijou felt his throat go dry as no sound left his mouth having been exhausted as he maintained the fetal position, his mind going back towards the one thing that had left him in this state.

Was he going to save those people?

Those people that were going to die anyway?

Those people that Othinus could control, kill and create with a wave of her hand?

Was he going to look towards the future instead of the present in order to determine the right course of action to do?

Kamijou breathed heavily as he considered his options, his mind turning, the boy opening his mouth despite his muddled mind and forming words, hoping that they would encourage him or at least decide his path for him.

These were not the words of the current Kamijou Touma who had been through so much. Nor were they from the previous 'Kamijou Touma' who had left the world.

They were the words that were coming from his broken heart that truly wanted to be relived of this pain. That heart had been crushed to the extent so Kamijou wanted to hear what it said despite the pain that he was receiving.

What was he going to do?

"Screw that."

The harsh words that came from his mouth from his heart made Kamijou stop for an instant in the fetal position that he was in.

Those two words. They were the two words that Kamijou's heart had truly decided to state in this hell and those two words filled Kamijou's being as he placed his right hand on the cold concrete.

"Yeah…..screw that."

Kamijou slowly reached out, grabbing onto the street light and grabbing it with as much strength as he could muster, the sweat that was running down his body freezing in the cold wind.

"Ignore the present because of the future? Is that really a reason? Is that really a reason to stop!? Am I just going to let Othinus do what she wants when there are those that have had their smiles taken away when they themselves don't even realise it?! Am I going to let those that I know merely fade away because I decided that it was convenient to take a break!? Screw thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttttttttttttttttt!"

Kamijou stood up, his gaze turning forward as he grabbed the street light with a strength that filled his entire body.

"I don't give a damn Othinus about the power you think you have. I don't care if you're going to take it all away in the end! Do you really think that I could abandon these people!? Even though they aren't the people that I know, I will save them as well as return to the world that I know!"

He let go of the street light, slamming his right fist into it as he glared towards the empty night.

"You better get ready Othinus. I'm going to stop you right here and now and there is nothing you can do to stop me to protect those people from you."

Kamijou let his words hang in the air as he breathed silently before realised one very basic point.

"Wait. Who the hell is Emiya Shirou? And Tohsaka Rin? They aren't related for sure. Their names aren't even the same! And how is Saber and Archer even a name?!" He wanted to question why everyone wanted to have a fake sounding name like it was no tomorrow however that basic issue stood out in front of him like a sore thumb.

He had no idea where he was.

He knew no one and Academy City did not exist.

Was this Othinus changing the 'point of view' so that the 'viewpoint' of Science was lessened? If that was the case then was Magic 'strengthened'? And if so, what aspects? Kamijou had seen demons that he was sure did not exist in his world but merely by 'strengthening' the aspects behind the mythology behind demons, then he was sure Othinus would allow them to exist.

Othinus could surely do so with her power however Kamijou had no other explanation right now. Again, he needed more information but that information needed to come later. What he needed to do now was to replace all thoughts that he had with one goal.

He needed to find out where these people were. He had no idea where any of them even lived so it was sure to provide him endless trouble if they lived on opposite sides of this town that he found himself in.

"Damn it! I can't stand around here! I need to-!" Kamijou immediately stopped as two shapes sailed overhead, Kamijou going wide eyed as he looked at the shapes that did so.

There were wearing dark colours, most likely black however even so, Kamijou managed to get the glimpse of white and some red before they disappeared into the distance, hopping over the houses like they were nothing more than small ledges.

Kamijou stood silent as he considered what it was that he had just seen. He could not tell the gender of the shapes however given that Academy City had literally been wiped out as an ideal and existence, there was only one thing that gave the explanation towards how those people could manage to leap over building like nothing.

Magic.

And if that was Magic-

No, an even more basic thought entered Kamijou's mind as he looked at the direction that the two figures had headed off in.

What if one of them, or if he was really lucky both of them were two of the people that he was looking for? He seriously doubted it with his luck however at the same time, the only people that he had seen in this world apart from the person that he created was were those two people that had just disappeared.

And they were just out of his sight.

"H-Hang on you guys!" Kamijou immediately broke into a run, attempting to follow the two, noting the left turn up ahead would be the best way to follow them, assuming that they were travelling straight.

He turned the corner-

Slamming right into something head first before he fell backwards, slamming on his butt as he held his nose, feeling a slight warm liquid there, that same liquid suspended in mid-air in front of him.

The air rippled, almost as if there was something there that should not have been, the small bit of blood hovering in mid-air where Kamijou had hit the strange 'wall' that appeared before him. This wall was definitely something that was not natural and only had one purpose; to prevent him from going forward.

And who was the only person that knew that he was here right now?

Kamijou clenched his right hand, standing up and immediately sending a fist into the 'wall' a shattering sound filling the air as the air itself dispersed, shimmering as if someone were looking at it on a warm day from a distance.

Kamijou's fist continued through the air as if nothing had been there, Kamijou immediately running forward in order to try and determine the location of the duo that he had seen before. He had no idea where they were however he merely had to assume that they were travelling where the crow flies which meant that the direction he needed to take was-

"STOP, SABER!"

A voice, male and youthful sounding, filled the air and Kamijou immediately feeling the two words that had been shouted out resounding through his body. Those words, that name, there was only one association that Kamijou could place within that very name and that very place.

Saber. It had been one of the names that Othinus had set as her target.

Kamijou looked around, noting the direction that the voice had come from, immediately turning the corner with a willpower that he knew was driving him faster and faster, the air distorting in front of him as he threw his right hand first wherever he ran.

His legs pounded as he ran, thinking about nothing but taking Othinus head on and to save those people that she had marked in her deathly gaze. This was the only thing that he needed to do however as he ran he truly considered one thing that he needed.

A strategy.

Heading straight into the battle even though there were things that he had to do meant nothing if he died in the first shot. Granted, Othinus could literally remove his muscles like she had done beforehand and end it in one turn however he doubted that it would happen. If anything, in this world of change, he and her were the only constants.

And if anything, Othinus wanted to make sure that his pain was something constant that he would always remember. As a result, there was no way that she was merely going to end things right here and now.

However even so that was the case, things were always changing. He needed to make sure that he headed into this battle with a method beyond his right hand, however this was a suburban neighbourhood. Any time that he took looking for a weapon was time that he wasted when it came towards protecting those strangers.

But even so, he needed to make sure that Othinus truly did not expect the attack that was coming. There was only one way that this endless fight would end; Kamijou touching Gungnir with his right hand. Of that he was sure but even so, he still needed to attempt to start the fight.

Granted, in the larger picture, the fight was more of a one-sided slaughter and Othinus had barely started to which Kamijou needed to make sure that he threw her expectations through the window from the start. But how could he-

Kamijou grit his teeth. He wasn't sure and he hated placing other people's lives on the line like he was thinking but as long as he wasn't there, there was the chance that Othinus would not kill them, choosing to wait until Kamijou was there to witness his failure in order to break him.

Yet by that same token, all she needed to do was kill them and her job was done. She didn't need Kamijou there.

But even so, the 'point of view' that Othinus had placed on the world that Kamijou was in right now was unclear to him but even so, there were worlds where that didn't even matter, just like when she had dunked him in liquid nitrogen in the previous world. He had not seen the outside world, merely waking up strapped to the device that was hovering above the liquid.

It was possible that she would merely end things without him understanding the nature of the world however he truly hoped that Othinus would go out of her way to cause him pain and misfortune. As long as he counted on that, he could truly come up with a way to save them.

Keeping an eye of the location that he needed to head towards in the distance, Kamijou approached the nearest house, immediately leaping over the gate and looking around seeing what he needed to find instantly.

The garbage can lay near the entrance and Kamijou opened the lid, holding his nose but still searching with his eyes in the bin. From what he could tell, this was either late night or early morning which meant that for a person that was trying to relax and kick up their feet for the day…

Kamijou found the empty bottle of wine immediately, poking out from the top, grabbing it with one hand and noting the smell of alcohol and he wiped the bottle on the grass. But still, would this be enough? Kamijou questioned it however noticed one more thing that he could use as a weapon, although it made him sorry to consider such.

However in order to protect these people, he needed to make sure that he was ready to fight that God.

"Sorry." Kamijou apologised towards the house as he opened the mailbox, noting that there were letters inside before ripping the entire box off its stand and ripping the stand from the ground. He quickly wrote down his phone number and an apology on one of the letters, putting them underneath the door of the house that he had effectively vandalised, grabbing the pole that the mailbox had been attached to along with the wine bottle.

There was no way that he was going to win with these. Of that Kamijou was sure yet-

"That's not going to stop me." He broke into a run again, turning right at the end of the house and then left, noting that the path in front of him was a stone stairway, voices entering his ears as he realised that he was close, Kamijou tightening his grip in the mailbox stand in his right hand.

The voices were soft but even then, Kamijou could see the air in front of him seem to distort just in front of the nearest turn to the left. There was only one thing that was beyond that very 'wall' of air that was placed in front of the entrance to the road that was in front of him.

It was time to start this struggle once again, not for himself but for those that he had fought for all along, those people that truly wanted to stay alive with their smiles on their faces. That was all that he needed.

So if that was the case-

Kamijou held up his hand, the knuckle of his right hand touching the end of the air 'wall', the moment he did the magic there immediately negating as Kamijou circled around the corner, yelling only one thing that was needed in order to start the battle.

"Othinnuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuussssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!"

* * *

The people he saw were definitely strange.

In front and closest, with her back turned towards him, Othinus stood with her revealing clothes and witch's hat, leaning against the Gungnir lance as she slowly turned her gaze towards him, a bored expression there, a flash of fascination as she looked at the weapons that he had in his hands.

However the other people were definitely not as strange as her.

The boy on the left wore brownish clothes with what looked like a white undershirt poking out from the top of the clothes, the brown clothes likely being that of a school uniform because of the fact that his pants and shirt matched each other. There was what looked like a bloodstain on the left, near the boy's heart however he wasn't dead yet so Kamijou immediately relaxed as soon as he saw it.

His topaz coloured eyes stared in surprise at Kamijou and his red hair seemed to move slightly in the wind that was created as such.

The woman that was next to him though looked as though she was taken out of some history book that a professional might read and analyse to determine stature and posture in battle. She was gripping something in her hands however Kamijou could not see it, her clothes looking like battle armour; a blue dress and top however Kamijou also noted the breast plate and gauntlets that covered her arms.

If anything, the metal plates that covered her sides also revealed to Kamijou that she was either a very dedicated cosplayer or….a magician. Or at least someone that was heavily lying on the Magic side of such yet it didn't matter to him.

The woman's green eyes seemed surprised to see him and he felt as though it was justified. After all, what was a spiky haired boy doing with a pole and bottle? He figured that he must have looked extremely odd towards the blonde haired woman as he turned his gaze towards the others, slightly recognising them.

The girl next to the woman looked around the same age as the boy as her turquoise eyes looked at the boy with suspicion. Her black hair was tied in a twintail fashion or facsimile of such wearing clothes that sort of looked similar to the boy's; a brown shirt however the legs and jacket she were wearing were of different colours, being black and red respectively.

She merely moved her hands towards her back while everyone was looking at the new entrance and Kamijou merely noticed her calm demeanour, hoping that she would have the rational to do what he told her when the time came.

The man next to her though seemed more familiar because of his white hair. His red jacket was what stood out the most about him as well as the strange nature of his pants, a pattern and make that Kamijou had never seen before. His eyes seemed to analyse Kamijou thoroughly and the composure that he had suggested that he was ready for anything.

Kamijou also hoped that that would maintain itself as the former two seemed to be more panicked than the latter two that were trying to understand the nature of what was going on here in front of them.

But Kamijou Touma didn't need them to understand. He just needed them to do one thing.

"Oh. You're here. But in the end, you're too late. After all, I said the names and from where you're standing…." Othinus turned to look at the foursome, the woman in the battle armour gripping the thing in her hand tighter as Othinus ignored her.

"I'd say I got the names right in order from left to right from our perspective. But you can guess what happens now right?"

Emiya Shirou, Saber, Tohsaka Rin and Archer. Kamijou noted the names that Othinus had noted off before, applying them to each person from left to right, the two boys and two girls. But even so, that meant nothing to him right now when there was something that he could achieve right now in this moment.

"But enough games. Time to die you guys. It'll be painful." remarked Othinus as she touched her lance.

"You-!" The woman in the battle armour, Saber, spoke towards Othinus however was looking in such a way that Kamijou could also feel as though it was directed towards him. What had he done?!

No, that was right. He hadn't done anything right now and what he needed to do was-

Tell this group what they needed to do.

"Run!"

Kamijou immediately yelled out that one word, throwing the bottle through the air as it sailed towards Othinus, the God merely turning and tilting her head slightly as the bottle passed right by her, smashing against the ground but Kamijou had already taken action.

Without hesitation, he raced forward yelling with the mailbox stand, swinging it towards the god's form, Othinus disappearing in an instant as the mailbox stand swung through empty air and almost threw Kamijou off his balance.

"Damn it!" he cried however the response of others was different.

"What the-!? How was she hiding her mana like that? Archer, can you sense her?!" Tohsaka Rin shouted towards Archer, the man looking down at her however Kamijou already knew what was happening.

He had been through this again and again.

Tohsaka had spoken first, isolating her position as the temporary leader in terms of what was happening right now in this incident. And that meant that in order to deal with that, there was only one thing that Othinus would do in order to make sure that the situation of terror never left her control.

And that meant-

"Get down!"

Kamijou immediately ran towards the girl, swinging the mailbox towards her to which Tohsaka's eyes went wide as she backed away from the blow that Kamijou was sending her way, Archer looking towards Kamijou with an expression of pure malice as he put his hands at his side, a strange light gathering there….

Just as the lance Gungnir sliced through the air where Tohsaka's chest had just been, slicing through her jacket ever so slightly, Othinus watching the girl ever so slightly out of her left eye as Tohsaka's face went pale in shock and surprise before it turned immediately towards the threat heading her way.

Othinus merely held up a hand and the mailbox stand hit it, shattering the tip into a thousand pieces in the process, all the pieces of metal smashing on the floor, Kamijou changing tactics at the last minute now that his method had been destroyed.

Yelling, he thrust the pointed tip towards Othinus's leg but once again she merely disappeared, appearing seconds later as she slammed her knee into Kamijou's chest, Kamijou feeling as though his lungs had once again failed.

He coughed up saliva and let go of the mailbox stand but didn't merely recoil.

He was literally blasted back into the wall, imbedding a crater that looked just like an imprint of his body as dust and rubble flew in all directions from the one blow. His felt as though his chest would be swallowed up in pain as he fell forward, catching himself and managing to stand at the last minute, breathing heavily although it was difficult.

A warm fluid ran down his mouth and he wiped away the blood that was there as if it was nothing. He had dropped the mailbox stand, looking for it in the corner of his eyes as he looked towards Othinus with a glare that suggested that there was no way that something like that was going to take him out.

"Archer!" Tohsaka yelled out towards the man and he immediately responded, disappearing in an instant as Tohsaka turned her gaze towards Emiya, Kamijou doing so as well, seeing that he had managed to pick up the fallen mailbox stand with shaking hands.

"Emiya-kun! You need to back off and get Saber to attack!" she said.

Emiya thought turned towards her with a gaze that suggested confusion but also determination. "Hang in just a minute Tohsaka! What in the world-?!" He asked however Tohsaka had already changed her target of direction.

She turned towards Kamijou with a gaze that held questions. "And you need to do the same! This isn't a battle for normal people!" She yelled that as she took one step forward yet it was Kamijou that yelled towards her.

"Don't be an idiot! It's you guys need to get out of here fast! There's no way that you can win!" stated Kamijou as he gathered strength in his legs, ready to pounce towards Othinus however the response that he got from Tohsaka was something that he did not expect.

"I have no idea who you are, but let me tell you one thing. _Don't underestimate the power of Servants_."

The moment that Tohsaka Rin let out those words the ground in front of Kamijou seemed to explode with Othinus at the centre, Kamijou having to cover his face in order to stop the rubble that was flying towards him. Air rushed from the centre of the crater as some kicked up, Kamijou managing to see three figures in the centre.

They were merely standing there however it looked as though two of them were on the offensive, only one figure on the defensive. Kamijou didn't need an explanation in order to determine who it was that was in what position.

As the smoke cleared, Kamijou saw the scene that he had and had not expected. The first was that of Othinus standing unharmed in the centre of the crater. However he did not expect to see the weapons that Archer and Saber held pointed directly at Othinus.

No, that was not really the proper explanation of the scene in front of him. Those weapons were not merely pointed towards her. They were resting on her skin as if they had been swung with all their might, Saber's whatever-she-was-holding weapon and the two swords that were in Archer's hands.

Othinus merely looked bored as she took a look at the weapons that were resting on her skin.

"Really? It's going to take more than that to even scratch me."

Kamijou, Emiya and Tohsaka all looked at the scene pale-faced as they considered the scene in front of them. Kamijou had no idea what they were thinking but Archer and Saber's attacks had definitely been strong, strong even to cause that crater and the resulting shockwave. Yet there had been no effect whatsoever. Othinus stood unharmed at the centre of it all.

This was a god and they were nothing more than puny humans trying to fight that same being. The fact that were trying to defeat her went beyond blasphemy and entered the realm of pure insanity.

"What-!?"

"How-!?"

Saber's and Archer's words came out as a shock even to them who had landed the blows but Kamijou immediately saw his chance to move, as did two other figures.

Emiya Shirou let out a roar, running forward towards Othinus with the mailbox stand, a green light having covered it in numerous places, a magic that Kamijou could not recognise but it did not matter. The movement of the second figure was enough to put Kamijou on full alert.

Othinus rose her hands, the lance disappearing in her hands as she did so. One might think that that was an advantage Othinus having lost her greatest weapon however Kamijou knew better.

That one action stated that she could eliminate them without it.

Othinus swung both of her arms to her side, the arms touching the weapons that were on her soft skin, sparks flying off as soon as she did so.

Saber and Archer immediately took note of the action, jumping back however the two boys had already managed to reach the spot that they had left, Emiya gripping the mailbox stand tighter while Kamijou clenched his right fist.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

"Shirou!"

Both of them shouted out as Saber yelled out Emiya's name yet Othinus took no watch towards the boy holding the Imagine Breaker, swinging her arm to the side as if she was spinning on the spot, just as Emiya swung down the mailbox stand like a bludgeon in order to hit her.

Her arm hit the mailbox stand and Kamijou awaited the crack of the sound of her arm breaking from the force that Emiya was swinging the mailbox stand with however nothing like that even remotely occurred.

Because like a sword, Othinus's arm cut through the mailbox stand, no sparks coming through the attack as if the stand were nothing more than a wet noodle. The tip fell towards the ground, the stand having shortened by half as Emiya gaped at the sight, Saber having crossed the gap between her and him in a second, gabbing him by the nape of the neck and throwing him backwards as she swung her sword and Kamijou swung his fist.

Othinus grabbed Saber's 'invisible weapon' and sparks resounded out as she grabbed the edge of it in the air, the air shimmering like it had before as Saber tried to push forward however to no avail, sparks flying everywhere as she tried to move the immovable force with the invisible force.

Her response towards Kamijou was completely different.

She stomped on the ground, the moment that she did, Kamijou immediately sinking into the ground as a result, his left leg doing so however he had already taken note of it, jumping with his right as he let out a roar, sending his right fist towards her-

He stopped, the force that was constraining his leg rising up his body, Kamijou taking the time to look at it once, only to see that the concrete was literally crawling up his leg like a snake, Kamijou gritting his teeth and abandoning his chance to attack Othinus, jumping backwards to which the concrete disappeared in an instant.

Saber continued to grunt as sparks continued to fly, staring Othinus in the eye as green eyes clashed.

"Who….the hell are you?! There's no way that you're a Master or a Servant either! Someone this powerful should never be in this conflict to start with! So who the hell are you?!" Tohsaka yelled towards Othinus to which she turned towards the girl with a look that could only be described as boredom.

"I told you. I am Othinus. And your life and body are in my palm. Anything and everything you do is controlled by me and by me alone."

Her words resounded through Tohsaka's ears however it was Kamijou that found them strange.

What she said was true to the largest extent. Their lives were in her palm and she could extinguish them like a flame on a windy night.

But they were all still here. She had dragged out the fight for something more than just one small counterattack. She had actually countered Emiya's attack and was holding Saber's back. What was the point? She had wanted to kill them right here and now and she could truly do so without even blinking an eye.

So why was she prolonging the battle?

What was she trying to do?

"Please." remarked Tohsaka with condescension in her tone. "I believe you in every sense except that. There is no magus that can remotely control everything. Wishes and beliefs cannot sustain themselves for that long. Immortality is a pipe dream filled with nothing but the thinking of losers."

"Absolute power on the other hand is a constant that everyone wants but only I can obtain. Would you like me to demonstrate?" asked Othinus as she looked towards Emiya, Saber moving in front Othinus's gaze even though she was being held back to which Othinus continued to stare at Saber, like she was watching Emiya through her body.

"Emiya-kun. Even you should recognise that magic isn't something that is governed by creation only. There are rules and processes that need to be followed. And there is no way that can be obtained by someone so young…and exposed." Tohsaka spat out the last word as she twitched her finger slightly to which Emiya slowly nodded.

"Tohsaka is right. Who are you? What do you want? I have no idea what is going on here but what do you want with us?"

Othinus on the other hand merely gave a bored sigh, turning her gaze towards Kamijou as he felt his entire body tingle with something that he knew from previous experience.

It was the chill of knowing that something was coming that he could not stop, dodge, evade or block with his right hand. It was an attack that would always hit its mark so matter what stood in its way.

"Seeing is believing right? I said I can kill you all. That your bodies are in the palm of my hand. It's time I showed you on my favourite toy." She held up the hand that was not holding Saber's blow, putting her middle finger and thumb together as she stared at Kamijou, the gaze in her eyes cold and calculating, Tohsaka and Emiya looking towards her and Kamijou, the stranger that had managed to cut in and save Tohsaka from being cut but Othinus.

Yet the only thing that Kamijou considered was not their gazes but the situation.

Was she going to kill him? Destroy him? Cause his head to be crushed? Electrocute him?

Something was coming and there was nothing Kamijou Touma could do to stop it.

Othinus clicked her fingers in a purely exaggerated fashion.

And Kamijou Touma's left leg literally exploded in a mess of bone, flesh, muscle and blood.

The fact that his support was gone from where it had previously been caused Kamijou to fall to the left, shock and a dizziness filling his head, something that was only removed the moment that he hit the ground, doing so faster than what he thought.

"Ah."

Kamijou felt his mind float in the air as he looked towards the place where his left leg had once been, blood gushing out from it dangerously and pieces of peach coloured skin, white coloured bone and red coloured blood covering part of his body and the area surrounding him.

His left leg was gone.

It had been unceremoniously destroyed as the air flowed into the wound without a care.

And that was when Kamijou screamed.

"GYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

He screamed at the top of his voice, grabbing the stump where his leg had previously been, noting with horror that the entire thing had literally disappeared, being shaved off from where it met his torso. He touched the stump with his right hand, hoping to some higher power that the movement would restore his leg however all he felt was blood and the sensation of his own muscles and bone.

Tohsaka was white in the face as she looked on at the scene, Emiya looking as though he was going to be sick as he covered his mouth while Saber's face seemed extremely pale as she watched Kamijou scream pitifully on the ground on front of them.

"See? I told you." Othinus childishly made the remark of arrogance as Kamijou screamed over her, holding up her hand with her thumb and middle finger attached.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand back again."

She clicked her fingers once again, and Kamijou felt something grow from right beneath his fingers, as he felt a cool sensation run through his hands as he weakly looked at where his left leg had been, _seeing that the same leg was there in the position it had once been as if nothing had happened_.

Still, the pain remained within his mind, Kamijou trying to endure it however feeling as though something was going to rise from the back of his throat and empty his stomach's contents onto the street.

"That's….not possible." Emiya stated that fact slowly as he backed away from the scene and boy who was panting heavily as Othinus turned towards him, raising her hand once again.

"Shall we repeat the process again?" she asked, her thumb and middle finger place dangerously close towards each other, causing the three people to stop momentarily as they watched the girl's fingers, awaiting what she would do with them.

"OTHINUS!" Kamijou shouted from the ground, lifting himself up with his hands shakily. There was no way that he was going to let her toy with them any longer. This was it and this was the moment that he needed to make sure counted the most. This was the moment that he needed to end things before they went out of control.

His left leg was perfectly fine however the memory of the pain that had once filled his body almost caused him to collapse, Kamijou touching the leg slightly with his right hand. If it was maintained with magic he didn't need a leg that he could not rely on. He needed to make sure that this leg was something that would last no matter what.

Kamijou touched the leg with his right hand, feeling the skin underneath it however it did not disappear and no magic was negated. That meant that it was a physical phenomenon, a real object like any other.

Which meant that he could use it in order to save these people.

He leaped forward, forcing down the pain that threatened to cause him to become debilitated, favouring his right leg as he saw Saber tense from his movement, almost as if she was surprised to see that the boy had moved whatsoever.

"Wait! W-What are you doing!?" Emiya from behind her seemed to reach out towards Kamijou however realised the one fact that a fate similar to what Kamijou had just experienced awaited him.

Kamijou though paid him no mind, running forward with a yell as he held out his right hand as another voice yelled through the air.

"Archer! Take action now! I don't care what you do but do it now!"

As Tohsaka yelled, Othinus however merely changed the tactic that she was using, literally throwing Saber towards the side, smashing her into the fall and making a crater next to the one that Kamijou had made.

"Saber!" Emiya shouted towards the girl, starting to head towards her before he stopped, looking towards the boy that was heading towards Othinus without a second thought after what had happened to him.

Saber pushed herself off the wall, looking towards the sight of Emiya that was standing in the distance.

"Shirou! Get back inside the house! Someone of your skill can't participate here!" she shouted towards him as Emiya turned towards her, looking back towards the boy that was heading towards Othinus.

"But what about-" He began asking however the flash of light that literally passed by him sent a rush of wind past him so fast that the cold wind seemed to dig into his skin, Emiya grunting he put up his hands to cover his face, seeing at the last minute the sight of an arrow sailing through the air that hit Othinus dead centre in the head.

However the world distorted.

Like Othinus's head was a lake, the moment the arrow touched her blond hair, it seemed to ripple from the tip of the arrow as the arrow sunk deeper and deeper into her skull yet not appearing on the other side, instead the arrow reappearing in the open palm she was holding open towards one person.

The arrow entered her head and exited from her palm, the arrow sailing through the air and piercing Kamijou right in the right shoulder, throwing him backwards violently as he gagged in pain as the arrow pushed him backwards into the wall that he had been slammed into before, jamming his right shoulder blade into the concrete.

"Gfbh? Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Kamijou let out that shout as Tohsaka realised that Archer's attack was not working at all, placing her right hand on her left forearm, pointing her hand forward as he held out her left hand vertically, a hazy black orb gathering there in her hand.

Without hesitation or stopping to think what would happen, she fired the spell, Emiya not recognising the spell as it sailed through the air, hitting Othinus in numerous places however just like before, the moment they touched her, her skin seemed to ripple and those black orbs were fired out of her palm, striking Kamijou in various places, blood coming from the wounds that they caused.

"T-Tohsaka, stop!" yelled Emiya and Tohsaka did, her voice wavering as she looked at Othinus.

"She's…..absorbing the mana and converging it to her will!? T-Tha-!" She stopped her words as she considered what was happening however it was Saber that responded, moving from the wall and kicking off the ground, yelling as she swung towards Othinus that was merely keeping her eye on Kamijou the entire time.

"Get out of my way." she said towards Saber and in the next instant, Saber's body was literally blasted towards the side, the woman circling in the air as she tumbled, straightening out and skidding on the ground, pale faced as she watched the God approach the human.

Kamijou watched her approach, thinking of only one thing as she approached, reaching his right hand for the arrow that was inside his shoulder blade, pain running through his body as he did so however he endured, getting the Imagine Breaker closer and closer towards the object itself-

"Now, now, we can't have that." Othinus appeared in front of him with a speed that was impossible to follow with the human eye, Kamijou going white in the face as she reached the arrow, grabbing it with one hand.

The moment she did, the arrow itself exploded, centred in Kamijou's shoulder blade.

Yet there was no burning sensation whatsoever to the touch where the arrow was, Othinus having grabbed the arrow and the white of the explosion literally travelling up her arm as if she were absorbing the power that was contained within it.

What the hell was she doing?! She was saving his life even though they were enemies and the fact that she was still causing him pain made Kamijou truly question the contradiction that was occurring. What was Othinus doing? She could kill everyone here right here and now so why wasn't she!?

"Archer!" called Tohsaka into the night. "Stop! We have to retreat! We need to get out of here as fast as we can!" She said towards the man however he was nowhere to be seen, Othinus's gaze slightly turning towards the right where Tohsaka was standing as the arrow disappeared itself, Kamijou falling to the ground where he landed on both his legs, the boy stumbling from the remembrance of what had happened to him before.

"Just sit still." remarked Othinus. "This will be over in an instant. You failed. Once again." Her words crushed Kamijou's heart as he considered them.

He had his left leg destroyed and returned. He had been shot in the shoulder blade with an arrow, thrown against a concrete wall and had a strange magic spell hammered into his body like a bullet. There was no way that he could even remotely think of continuing for himself however that in itself told him one thing that he needed to know.

He wasn't fighting for the future or himself. He was fighting to protect the smiles of those others that were in the present.

Whether he knew them didn't matter. Whether he would suffer did not matter either. There was only one thing that he had to do.

"Damn youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!" Kamijou roared, standing up and using his body to circle his right fist due to centrifugal force, the only attack that he hoped that he would be able to get in in this battle-

Othinus disappeared and he knew that it was over.

She appeared right behind him, with her back facing the wall that he had slammed into in the very beginning.

"Think twice before you thrown those pathetic punches you puny human. I'll show you how a God does it properly."

Othinus clenched her own right fist, slamming it into Kamijou's chest as he begun to turn towards her as the white energy pulsed down her arm and into the fist that was contacted with the centre of Kamijou's chest.

The explosion that had once been the one from Archer's arrow concentrated itself into Kamijou's chest, the sound that filled his ear drums enormous however the pain that filled his body impossible to describe as the focused explosion was poured right into the centre of his chest.

He was literally blasted back into the wall behind him, bursting through the concrete as he tumbled head over heels into the garden that lay beyond it, slamming onto the ground where he continued his pathetic ride before he slammed into the metal of a storeroom behind him, the impact causing a cracking sound from coming from his right shoulder blade.

Saliva and blood came from Kamijou's mouth as he let his head drop, looking towards the centre of his chest, wondering how the hell he was still conscious from all of that looking at the wound he had received.

_His clothes had an enormous burning hole in the centre of it_, the same hole going through the material where the smell of burning flesh filled his nose, a warm, red liquid going from his chest into the lower regions of his pants as the blood flowed down his body. He couldn't see the wound completely however hoped that there was nothing white sticking out from his chest.

He put all of his body weight into the back of his body, the result of such meaning that his weak body and blurring vision could see the sight of Emiya Shirou shouting towards Tohsaka Rin as the sound of smashing and clashing filled his ears.

Those people were those that he had failed to save. Those that he had let down once again.

There were no screams of pain or anguish as the clashing continued. Why was Othinus causing the clash to continue? What was the point of it all? Was it to give Kamijou a chance to defeat her?

He truly doubted that she wanted to be defeated or that such a chance would arise. In fact, there was only one thing that filled his mind as he considered what had happened to him and the fact that he could even still think.

Othinus wanted to use this world for a little longer. But with who? And to what end?

What was there that he could see here? What would be the cause of the breaking of his mind?

"Shirou! Get back! She's marked you!"

The voice of Saber filled the air and she appeared in the gap in front of him, Kamijou seeing through the hole that he had created Saber standing holding her invisible weapon as she stood in front of Emiya, in an effort to protect him.

"Emiya-kun! Get the hell away from here! You have to-!" Tohsaka's voice came through as a plea however the only thing that Kamijou considered in front of him was that Emiya Shirou was not yet dead while he had been 'marked'.

And with Saber standing in front of him, that would surely give him the chance to escape.

Yet-

"…That…."

Kamijou slowly let out that word. There would be no one blaming him at all if he sat there and did nothing. In fact he knew numerous people that would tell him to sit back and merely let events take place in front of him. He had been beaten and he had lost. There was nothing he could do but watch his failure and endure it, moving onto the next world in order to redeem the mistake that he had made.

But even so, the one fact in his mind was that Emiya Shirou was going to die.

How would Saber react?

How would Tohsaka Rin react?

How would Archer react?

How would his family react?

And most importantly-

How would Kamijou Touma react?

"That won't work!"

Kamijou moved his body forward, using the momentum in order to move his body forward, pain blossoming and enveloping his body cruelly as he somehow managed to stand, getting a grip on the ground with his feet.

The moment he did though he regretted it, feeling nothing but endless pain and a trip to an abyss that was only one way.

Still he didn't care as he took another step.

He had to make it there.

He took another step.

He needed to reach that place where Emiya was before Othinus did! And the moment that he did so, that was the only small victory that he needed!

He would protect the smiles of anyone and everyone and become a shield for all the misfortune that one would face.

Even if it was coming from a Magic God.

He didn't recognise the fact that he had reached Emiya, until the time where he outstretched his hands, pain coming through his shoulder blade to such an extent that he could hardly tell what no pain in his body felt like.

He grabbed the boy by the shoulders, Emiya turning towards him and going white in the face as Tohsaka and Archer watched the actions of the boy with pure fascination and disbelief that he was even still standing.

Saber turned her eyes backwards once as Othinus approached her, having materialised Gungnir again as she approached, Saber's eyes going wide as she saw Kamijou moving from the hole in the concrete wall and grabbing Emiya by the shoulders.

And there was only one thing that he had to say.

"Run."

Kamijou literally put all his force into pushing Emiya to the side as Othinus reacted like lightning in order to intercept what had been her original target. Stepping forward, she literally_ passed right through Saber as if she were nothing_, thrusting the lance through her as well-

Just as Kamijou Touma made it in time, the lance missing Emiya Shirou completely.

Instead, only for a squelching sound filling the air as Kamijou felt the lance pierce his left lung as he coughed up blood and all movement ceased within his body, his body limping as Othinus rose the lance as Saber fell to her knees as she realised what the others should have from the beginning.

They had lost, purely, utterly and completely. And the only thing that had to show for the fact that had made it this far was the fact that they had survived….for now.

Yet even so, the four parties were ignored as Othinus let out words that were meant for only one to hear and answer.

"Well? Was it worth it? Do you really think that you gained anything? Do you really think that these people will know your name? Or even consider it? You are a stranger and you are going to die without remorse. Feel that cold sensation in small increments? That's the feeling of your heart pressing up against Gungnir. Notice how that feeling is getting more and more increased in the time that you feel it? You know what that means right? So tell me, was it worth it?"

Othinus spat out those words towards Kamijou and as his head hung downwards, dripping blood there was only one thing that Kamijou could truly respond with.

"Yes. It always is."

"….."

Othinus looked at the boy for a bit and smiled, a devilish smile that only she truly understood.

"You won't think that for long. And that is when you will break, in this world."

Othinus wasted no time slamming the boy into the ground, a crater forming as Kamijou Touma's body was slammed into the concrete as dust flew in all directions as Kamijou truly felt all feeling leave him as a ringing filled his ears as Othinus turned towards Emiya who immediately backed away with a panicked face before she looked at Tohsaka and Archer, the man standing in front of Tohsaka even though he was doomed to lose.

And-

"Well. You survived. Enjoy the life you have managed to keep. For as long as I see fit to maintain it."

And with that she disappeared, Kamijou listening as nothingness reigned, the sound of breathing getting slower and slower as things calmed down filled the air and as blackness surrounded him.

Was this it? Was this the end?

Kamijou's body had lost all feeling and his vision turned dark as he slowly sunk into the abyss that Othinus had created.

What had she meant that he was going to break in this world? Was she going to keep him alive? Or was this the end for now?

At any rate, there were only two things he had to consider.

He had saved them. He had completed his goal so it was surely worth this pain, this endless abyss of nothingness that slowly wrapped around Kamijou. He had done it.

And the other thought was that there was no way that it could get worse than this.

Yet-

"Touma…"

A voice filled his ears, a childlike voice that was that of a girl's. It was sad, broken and on the verge of tears and the one word, the name that he had not given anyone, that was spoken did something that had not been done in this world as far as Kamijou could remember.

It destroyed him from the inside.

That girl's voice was so close yet so far, reminding him of someone that he had once left. Someone who could possibly not be here. But here it was.

And Kamijou had to ensure that it did not speak with pain any longer.

"Don't worry…"

Was he speaking or thinking these words? He did not know however felt as though it was both. But still he let the words flow out despite the lack of pain as he knew that this was all going to end soon.

"I'll be by your side once again….Soon….."

And everything truly fell silent and ended.

* * *

**Crossover done!**

**If anything, with the fight scene and the fact that in my story of A Certain Unknown Level 0, something like this will probably never happen, it truly shows the extent to which I am probably a Touma sadist. But at the same time, the concept here has deep ties to the story arc I'm currently writing so I hope that you look forward to that when I write it.**

**Yet for this crossover I felt as though everything in this world can be broken into two categories with some overlap: can be destroyed by Othinus and can be destroyed by Touma. So here, obviously Touma has to but does not want to destroy whereas Othinus can do nothing but create in order to destroy. It's a nice contrast and puts open the question for this world: between two forces that can truly destroy the world, who will survive?**

**But I felt as though the punishment I gave Touma here was something that only can be written in the context of NT 9. This is set between Version Beta and Omega so among the millions and billions of worlds, this was probably only one of them that could be created by changing the 'point of view' and 'accenting' different things.**

**Obviously in this crossover the emphasis would be the 'Holy Grail' and 'war' with a lesser emphasis of 'science' as was previously explained so I felt as though Othinus could truly do this was the manipulation of the Phases.**

**Writing her fight scenes, or slaughter scenes, was damn hard though! While Accelerator tries to end everything early with a clear weakness in his electrode, Othinus had no barriers and when you have a character that can 'reset' everything in a paragraph, how are you supposed to write that?! I hope that you guys felt that I did this well though.**

**But at any rate, this is the end for now. Until my next status update and one-shot.**

**But this was almost as long as one of the actual chapters…..But I still DON'T OWN ANY CHARACTERS that were mentioned here. Can you name them all? No one has actually managed to do so...**

**But still how did you like Touma fighting a Magic God? I hope you guys felt as though it was something that wasn't over the top. Personally though, I truly think that it was the case.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**But this is where the fun truly begins. So if you have an idea or request for an interaction, please inform me of such and I'll see what I can do.**


	4. The Good and Bad Toy

**And this is perhaps the start of the project!**

**With all of the previous stories being something that you guys have already read, I think that this is perhaps the first thing that you guys can count as 'new' in this project or something that I have updated for a while.**

**To be honest though, this does not mean that I have disregarded my other project, after all it is the one that has started this one so destroying that one in favour of this would be unfair. If anything, you have to note though that I cannot type two stories with two hands. It just doesn't work.**

**So whatever I write here means that I will not be writing on the other project. If anything though, I suppose these sort of one-shots are going to be a mix of the life in Between the Lines. So maybe or maybe not there will be dates and maybe maybe not fight scenes but if you are looking for a proper plot then perhaps you can look towards my main project.**

**But now for me to move on. And I want to do that my thanking my beta reader PokeRescue18 for the work that he has done. With a mix of questions regarding what to do with this project, he has been kind and really stuck with me. If you think that the first chapter of this is better than my main project I thank him for that.**

**But I'd also like to thank those of you that have managed to stay with me for all this time. Unlike my main, these stories are sort of haphazard so I hope that you still manage to stay with me regardless. But for those that have stuck with me, I truly thank you.**

**But apart from that there is not really that much to say in regards to this project. So let us begin the new work and surprises.**

**Enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

The Love That Is Obvious, Yet Never Said. _A_Gift_to_Remember._

"I have here two dolls. You can choose only one. If you choose the good doll, you get your money back and we all walk away. Happy as happy can be right?"

"And if I choose the bad one?"

"Well then….."

The smile on the face of the person who spoke was not normal. It was something as if they were speaking to someone that was destined to die at their hands, a fact that would have made many tremble with the fear of taking a life however the smile that was on the person's face did not show that.

Instead, it was a horrible sense of anticipation.

"Let's just say that things will not work out for you then."

"What do I do? Who are you anyway?"

"I-I just told you, you damn idiot! Did you not sense the importance of what I was saying? As for who I am, can you not read what that sign says!?"

The person spoke as they pointed towards the sign that was next to the table that they were sitting at, something that was placed right in front of the window to a famous restaurant chain. The table was portable, as was the chair the person was sitting on as well as the sign, the only things that seemed rooted in place being the two dolls on the table.

But still, the person definitely felt as though they were dealing with someone that did not deserve their time.

But this was a task that had to be done.

No matter what.

"Basically, it says that my name is Frenda Seivelun! Does your brain lack that processing information because the spikes in your hair run into your head?!"

The plan was foolproof. The situation was terrible but the plan was foolproof.

Because Frenda Seivelun had one goal and only one goal in this task in front of her as she looked at the boy in front of her and the two dolls.

And that was a goal that surpassed ever single type of difficulty that she had ever faced in her entire life.

* * *

Two hours prior, the girl known as Frenda Seivelun was faced with the exact same problem albeit without a solution.

Her face was pale and an unnatural sweat ran down her back as she looked at the toys in front of her. They were both the same, identical in nature that of a rabbit with pink fur and buttons for eyes. They were both the same height, shape and possibly the cotton used for their stuffing was the same as well.

But still Frenda frowned as she looked between the two of them, tilting her head in thought before she placed it on the table, turning it so that she looked outside in the window of the Joseph's branch of restaurant that her team, ITEM was so fond of, despite it being in District 7 this time.

It was October 5th.** [1]**

Yet at the same time, it was the day that Frenda had just decided, on a whim to get a present for her little sister, Fremea Seivelun. She did not have a reason for it. It was just a day that she felt that she needed to let her know that, despite the dark nature of her life, she wanted to let Fremea know that she did love her.

After all, she was her little sister, the one person that could not be replaced.

And although the fact was that there were plenty of opportunities that she said that she loved her and that love was returned, she still wanted to give that little something to express that.

Thus leading towards the current situation.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit! Which is it, which is it, which is iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttttttt!?" Frenda suddenly grabbed her head, ruffling her blond hair and causing her dark-coloured beret to fall to the ground. She looked at it with displeasure and she placed her head on the table and spoke up.

"Oh. Hamazura. Basically, I want you to pick that up for me. It doesn't match what I'm wearing otherwise." she said towards the person that was standing at the table despite the fact that only Frenda was there.

"Wh-What?! I thought that I would be doing important at least! Why the hell do I have to pick that up?!"

"Is that what you want written on your tombstone?"

"I-I'll do it ma'am." Hamazura Shiage gave in easily as he shakily bent down and picked up the beret that had fallen and lifted it onto the table, placing it next to Frenda's head. Despite the fact that he had only recently started working for this 'ITEM', courtesy of the failure of the Dangai University Database Centre attack and the assassination of Misaka Misuzu, Hamazura still wondered if this was what the life of a Level 0 like himself could be reduced to easily.

"B-But what are you doing anyway?" he asked Frenda as she sat at the table with a frown, clearly upset about something that was enough to allow her to get the attention of others around her.

"Oh? You want to know?" she asked Hamazura with a raised eyebrow, eyeing him suspiciously before sighing.

"No…..basically, I need another opinion. I can't do this alone." she said as she put both of the dolls in front of Hamazura and took a look out the window without a care as she spoke.

"Choose one of these toys. Then smash it in the chest with something hard, like a fist or something." she said, nonchalantly as Hamazura looked at the both of them before turning towards her.

"They are both the same. Why do I have to do it to only one?"

"One of them has a bomb in it."

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!?"

Hamazura let out a scream that should not have come from a male's mouth as he backed away, looking at the dolls in pure fear as he slightly shook while observing them as if they suddenly had increased in the amount of fear that they held, something that was clearly obvious for the Level 0.

This, of course, was Frenda's dilemma.

While she wanted to give one of the toys to her little sister, the fact of the matter was that Frenda was sure that at least one of them had a bomb in it. She did not know why but there was a definite 'wrong feeling' about the toys themselves. Although they had the same weight, something that the bomb would have added to, she could not tell.

They both had metal elements so the bomb could not be determined through a metal detector. Nor could she just rip them open. From how sensitive she had made them, she knew that doing so on the toy with the bomb in it would lead to the loss of her fingers if she was lucky.

And given Fremea's tendency to like those weird, violent video games, there was only one thing she was sure Fremea was going to do with it; probably beat it to a pulp with her bare hands.

And while she did not really understand the nature of 'things you did not give siblings', she was fairly sure that 'toys with bombs in them' was underneath that list.

"So? What are you doing to do Hamazura? I asked you to do something. Basically, do it." remarked Frenda as she opened her eyes and stood up frantically.

"Wait, wait, wait. Let me go outside first!" she said as she started to leave the table.

"That's your first thought?! Is your heart a black hole you bitch? Just what do you think of me anyway!? No, I don't want to answer to that. I'm not going to touch the damn things. Is it pressure sensitive or something to explode when I punch it or the like? Jesus, you must have really wanted to take care of someone like that." remarked Hamazura, partially impressed.

After all, if it was going to drop and explode, Frenda would have been more careful but the fact that she wasn't jumpy meant that she had probably taken safe guards against such, although in other situations, Hamazura could not be sure. The extent to which she was careful though was something that definitely was something that Hamazura did not see in his Skill-Out days.

And if that was the case…..then what was ITEM?

Hamazura had basically started working for them today but at the same time, the prospect of this being the things that he would have to deal with…..

"In any case, I'm not going to touch the damn things. Why do you want to know which one has the bomb in it anyway?" Hamazura reduced his voice to a whisper as he spoke towards Frenda who merely frowned and gave a shrug with a look on her face that asked "Isn't that obvious?".

"So I can throw it away. Duh. But I'm going to give the other one to someone I know so basically I really want to remove the bomb from the toy." she said with a soft tone, something that Hamazura did not delve into, given the nature of what it was that he was looking at.

"But why me? Why ask me?" he asked her to which she shrugged, giving the impression that perhaps Frenda did things without thinking of their after effects. Such as placing a bomb inside a rabbit for example.

Yet at the same time, he sighed, rubbing his eyes and pointing towards the toys.

"Well, you want to know which one of them has the bomb without dealing with the thing yourself right?" he asked her to which she nodded in response Frenda frowned as she looked towards the oddly professional look that Hamazura had in his eyes.

"Obviously. What do you suggest then?" she asked him to which Hamazura only said one word.

"Outsourcing."

* * *

Frenda Seivelun felt stupid but at the same time, oddly comfortable with the suggestion that Hamazura had given. While he had left, doing some 'official business' that he did not want to disclose, something that Frenda felt was a camouflage for wanting to run away, it had left Frenda alone to look at the toys and the reality that one of them was a bomb.

She did not do so without distraction though.

She had moved outside the restaurant, choosing a fold up table and chair to sit in as she placed a sign next to the table that she sitting at, giving the suggestion that Hamazura had given to her in word form.

Basically it said:

'The Good and Bad Toy. Pay 1000 Yen to have a guess. If you get the good toy, you get your money back! But if you choose the bad….By Frenda Seivelun.'

She looked at the sign with a look on content as she nodded to herself, before noting the petrol station that was almost empty of customers on the opposite side of the road that she was on.

After all, her plan was simple. Should the consumer choose the Good Toy, then they walked away with their money and Frenda knew which one to give to Fremea. She won her sister's gift and the consumer got their money back.

Yet if they chose the Bad Toy, then they would likely perish, Frenda would know which one was the Good Toy and come out with 1000 Yen at the end of it! Luckily, she had chosen a spot without any security cameras to conduct business meaning that her plot was completely foolproof.

Either way, she won in the sense that she knew which toy was the one to give to Fremea and there was always the chance she would win 1000 Yen! It was outsourcing by giving the problem to someone else!

"Shishishishi." She laughed to herself yet at the same time frowned after laughing.

After all, she had been here for the last hour or so and the only thing that she got for sitting in this weather was probably a bad tan and people looking at her and the sign with odd looks before running away after Frenda had called out to them after giving time to read the sign.

"Honestly is the world just cruel or is it trying to avoid me or something?" Frenda asked with a pout in her tone whilst grumbling as she looked at the onlookers that were clearly trying to avoid her.

But if this idea did not work, she was definitely going to murder that Hamazura! But not in front of Mugino. DEFINITELY not in front of Mugino. While she might be able to get away with saying that 'newbies should learn the hard way', she might suspect something and possibly result in some harsh punishment that would raise a number of death flags.

Yet she watched the crowd as time passed, noting the people and the people that they were with, trying to grasp the attention of the men by using her feminine charms (which usually did not work) or try to appeal to the woman by trying to appear weak (which also did not work).

Another half an hour passed as did the amount of patience that Frenda had as she slowly closed her eyes, sighing to herself and placed both hands on the table, ready to stand up and leave. If there was no one that was willing to help her in her endeavour then all she had to do was leave the present for another occasion.

After all, it wasn't Fremea's birthday or anything. She just wanted her to know that her big sister was here for her if she needed anything.

But somehow, even that was nothing more an illusion. She would not be here forever, that much she knew and there was definitely a chance that Fremea would die before she did, especially in this City of Science where anything could happen, but even so, if something happened to her, Frenda wasn't sure what she would do.

What would happen if she left her life?

Or the opposite; what would happen if she left Fremea's?

Who would take care of her then?

Perhaps it was because she saw death and caused it every now and then that she had these thoughts but even so, they weighed heavily on her head. Was there really a chance that Fremea would be left with nothing?

Frenda knew that Fremea would always have something to remind her by but even so, the small tugging within her heart wanted to make sure that there was something else that she could leave behind. Her existence was fleeting but even so, that was her wish right now.

But even so, that was something that was her own selfish wish and nothing to be granted by anyone, especially towards someone like her.

"Heh….Basically, I just want to be pampered." said Frenda to herself as she breathed in ready to stand up-

And she saw him.

He wasn't anyone special.

He was just a normal boy, someone she did not know, perhaps her age or older. He was wearing a school uniform with a jacket that covered his orange shirt, a jacket that was similar in coloured to her beret and matched his pants. His face was boring, although he had the look of someone that had just had a bad day and his spiky hair went in all directions.

But the thing that stood out about him the most, _was that he was looking at the sign_.

It might have been passing interest however he had physically stopped and was reading it over, once, twice and perhaps even three times.

Frenda paused, looking at him, something that he did not notice as she watched him before clenching her fist in the table.

She wanted to leave a mark, another mark, in the life of her sister and this toy was how she was going to do it. Which meant that this was her last chance to do something and ask herself whether she could be allowed to leave something like this.

This was her last chance.

So she out on an angelic smile and waved towards the boy while sitting down on the chair that she had been sitting in this whole time.

"Hello there sir. May I help you?" she asked him, grabbing his attention. He blinked once then twice before moving.

However he did not move away, rather _forward _towards the small table that Frenda had set up.

"Hey there." he said with a wave. "I was just wondering what this was."

Frenda maintained the smile towards him and spoke.

"I have here two dolls. You can choose only one. If you choose the good doll, you get your money back and we all walk away. Happy as happy can be right?"

"And if I choose the bad one?"

"Well then….Let's just say that things will not work out for you then."

"What do I do? Who are you anyway?"

"I-I just told you, you damn idiot! Did you not sense the importance of what I was saying? As for who I am, can you not read what that sign says!?"

Frenda, without knowing it, lost her temper as she pointed towards the sign that she had basically memorised. Did this kid even listen to thing that she was saying?!

"Basically, it says that my name is Frenda Seivelun! Does your brain lack that processing information because the spikes in your hair run into your head?!"

"Fre…nda?" he asked her at her foreign name as Frenda frowned.

"Why did you just separate my name in two!? Yes, it's Frenda! Do you have a problem with that?" she asked him as she crossed her arms, causing the boy to step back a bit with a nervous smile.

"Ah!? No, it's just a name that….I don't hear very often, that's all." he explained. "But is it OK if I have a go at this? I mean choosing the Bad Toy doesn't mean it's going to blow up or anything right?" He laughed however Frenda had frozen in shock.

Had she been found out?! Just how much of an expert was this boy!? She had thought that perhaps his idiotic face was something that one might find anywhere but at the same time, she felt that she had severely underestimated this boy and his ability to sense a bad situation!

No….this had to be maintained! She had to deal with this calmly and rationally!

"Hahaha! That's right! Who would do something like that here in Academy City? Anyway, if I could please have the fee required?" she asked as she held out her hand towards the boy.

He nodded and brought out his wallet, bringing out 1000 Yen as he handed it to her, something that she placed on the table between the two rabbit dolls in order to show to him that she was, all appearances given, an honest person.

"There we go." he said with a smile. "So what do I do now?" he asked her.

"Just choose a doll." she explained.

"Is that it? How do I know if it's the right or wrong one?"

"Simple." Frenda said as she reached for something that she had taped under the table, bringing it out and smashing it onto the table, onto the 1000 Yen that was there, an action that caused the boy to pale as he looked at what Frenda was holding as she kept her smile.

"You smash it with this hammer."

"….."

A stiff silence filled the air as the boy looked towards the hammer and then towards Frenda and back again, blinking a few times before he scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"Um….I'm just asking but has this doll done something to you?"

"Not at all. But if it's the Bad Toy, it might to you." said Frenda maliciously as the boy seemed to sweat drop.

"Right. By the way, do I get my 1000 Yen back if I get the Bad Toy? Because usually, my misfortune seems to suggest that I will choose the Bad Toy." said the boy with a sad smile on his face, something that Frenda felt she pitied somewhat. If this boy's life was that bad, why would he give 1000 Yen to a stranger?

Conclusion: he was an idiot.

"Ah, no. Basically I think that if you choose the Bad Toy, you won't need 1000 Yen where you're going." replied Frenda bluntly towards him.

"Wh-what does that mean?! That raises all kinds of death flags Frenda-san! Can I at least have the 1000 Yen back before I smash one of these toys?" asked the boy with a pained look on his face.

Frenda though frowned before pulling the 1000 Yen closer to herself.

"No! You have to smash one of the toys first!" she said in a frantic voice. Why was this kid asking so many questions?! Smash the damn toy!

"Huh?! It's my money! G-give it back and then I'll smash whatever toy you want!" said the boy as he grabbed the other end of the money, tugging on it however Frenda had already lifted it up towards her, pulling on it at the other direction.

"No! You have to choose what toy to smash! I don't know which it is!" Frenda yelled towards him as they continued to tug-of-war.

"What does that mean!? It's your stall isn't it? How do you not know which is the Bad one!? Is there something inside it that is important to you or something? I don't think that you would let a random stranger like me do this if there was!" The boy retorted.

"I-I just haven't checked! And no, there's nothing important in there!" Frenda cried as she tugged onto the 1000 Yen. For something so little, right now it seemed like a lot to her!

"So there is something in there! What is it that you want my 1000 Yen so badly!? I worked hard for this!"

"Basically I'm not telling you!"

"Why?! What is it? Tell me!"

"No!"

"Do it!"

"I won't!"

"You will!"

"I won't!"

"Will!"

"Won't!"

"Will!"

"Won't!"

"Will!"

"Won't!"

"Will!"

"F-Fine, basically it's a fucking bomb alright!?" Although she said the words, the last three were whispers that only she and the boy could hear, something that made the both of them go white in the face as they realised what it was that she had actually said.

Their shouting had attracted attention but now that it was over, the pedestrians seemed unoccupied by the quarrel, leaving the two of them staring at each with expressions of disbelief and confusion regarding what it was that Frenda had said.

The boy's mouth seemed to open and close frantically as Frenda made the last tug with her hands and stole the 1000 Yen from him before putting it in her dress for safe keeping as she watched the boy who seemed stunned before slumping, trying to find his words.

Generally though, there was nothing that could be said. When in shock, most people rambled whatever was at the top of this mind. Although some of it made no sense, well if he suddenly said something like "You're beautiful Frenda-san" she might forgive him for being annoying, generally the incoherence of the mind made things hard to grasp when they spoke.

As a result, having seen this type of thing before, Frenda Seivelun was absolutely prepared for anything that the boy wo-

"Wh-What colour is it?"

"What the hell kind of question is that?! How am I supposed to know?! Basically it's probably black!"

Frenda paused the moment she answered and held her head in her hands as she realised the answer that she had given and the tone her retort had been in. She grit her teeth as she wondered why the question had been so annoying to her in the first place or why she had answered in the way she did.

Conclusion: she was an idiot as well.

"B-Black? Are you sure?" The boy asked her as he looked towards the rabbit dolls, gulping slightly, Frenda looking at him with a frown. For something like this, he was taking it awfully well. Yet at the same time, his answer pissed her off to the largest extent but she could only shrug.

"I don't know. Probably. Bombs are black."

"I guess. But why? I-I mean, can't you have red bombs? Or green bombs?"

"Basically, why do you want different coloured bombs?! It's not like you can go into a store and ask them "Do you have bombs in white today?"!? Just crack it open and if you find it, you can spray paint it whatever colour you want or buy it beforehand!" Frenda panted as she frantically answered the boy as he blinked once and pointed at the 1000 Yen that she had in her dress.

"Well, I would need-"

"Fine! Take it and get me a water while you're at it! I'm thirsty after talking to you!" She took the money out and gave it to the boy as she pouted, turning her head in a pompous manner as the boy nodded.

"Right. Any brand or-?"

"Just go!" Frenda yelled to which the boy jumped and slowly walked away.

Frenda placed a hand to her brow. Right. Now that was dealt with, all she needed to do was figure out which toy had the-

She opened her eyes and blinked as she realised the very reason why she had talked to the boy in the first place.

"OI! COME BACK HERE YOU BASTARD!" She shouted as she literally leaped out of her chair and tackled the boy to the ground by grabbing him by the legs as he was about to escape.

"No! Leave me alone! I knew something was off! M-My money! Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! SUCH MISFORTUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" The boy shouted out as he gripped his head and rolled on the ground as Frenda took her prize and placed it where it had gone previously in her dress, as she grabbed the boy by the neck and dragged him back to the table.

"Right, none of your smart ass remarks. Choose one and smash it."

"B-but if I do then-!"

"That's why I said you didn't need the 1000 Yen where you're going." remarked Frenda nonchalantly as she sat down in the chair.

"Th-That's evil! What kind of scam is this? Are you an idiot?" asked the boy with obvious shock in his voice.

"What kind of idiot falls for this kind of thing?!" shouted Frenda back as she handed the hammer towards the boy who seemed to tremble.

The boy looked towards it as Frenda grinned. Even if he were to swing it, Frenda planned to run away the moment he started to swing the hammer down. As long as she did that, then her plan for 1000 Yen acquisition was complete! But first he had to swing the thing!

"H-hang on, you said you didn't know which one had the bomb in it! So what happens if I call Anti-Skill or Judgment?" asked the boy.

"Be my guest. Basically, in the time it takes them to get here, I will have forced you to smash both of the toys. So even if you manage to get the Good Toy, I still get 1000 Yen!" stated Frenda with a smile to which the boy truly seemed to sniffle with tears in his eyes as he listened to the harsh words that Frenda was giving him.

"Such misfortune." he said as he wiped his nose with his sleeve as he stared hard at the two toys, gulping as sweat rolled down his back as he tapped his foot on the ground, looking at both of the toys.

This was a life and death situation! People might say that it was like flipping a coin with a 50% chance either way however unknown to Frenda, the boy in front of her could be revered as a God of Misfortune due to the power in his right hand.

While it might be 50%, whenever the boy flipped a coin, a magpie would always snatch it away in mid-air.

When it came to rolling a six sided die and choosing an odd or even number coming up, the die would always split in half revealing both of the opposite side that the boy chose.

When there were no signs over the boy and girl bathroom, the boy would always manage to choose the girls!

There was no such thing as 50%! It was 100% in the negative direction!

Yet for the boy that meant that he knew that his first choice was probably going to fail.

"In that case, it's the left!" he said, turning towards it as Frenda seemed to lean forward as the boy gripped the hammer.

But….wait.

This was no joke. Knowing his misfortune, the left was probably the Good Toy, the right one being the bomb. That meant his decision was correct. He had originally thought that the bomb was the left meaning that he would have smashed the right.

But knowing his misfortune, the right would have been the one with the bomb following his original decision! So the correct answer was that the left was the Good Toy!

But what if that was just his thinking?

What if he had enough bad luck for one day? He had gotten roped up in this situation meaning that that was enough right? Wasn't this the worse things could get?

Didn't that mean that his misfortune was working against him? Did that not mean that if he chose the right being the bomb, his misfortune would know that he would think that and thus make the left one the bomb!? He would then smash what he thought was the Good Toy and be blown to smithereens!

In other words…..was his misfortune bluffing? Saying that it was one thing, only for it to be the other?

Or was it a double bluff?

Would misfortune act in a way that would make the boy think that it was the left with the bomb when he had originally thought it was the right only for him to turn towards his original decision and then get blown to smithereens!?

Or was it a triple bluff?!

Or the dreaded quadruple bluff?!

"Shit, shit, shit, shit! Which is it, which is it, which is iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttttttt!? What did I deserve for this to happen to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!?" The boy shouted out as he dropped the hammer, dropping to the ground and rolling on the ground frantically, causing a scene and making people back away from the table and around a 5 metre radius.

Frenda looked towards the boy and slightly felt some pity towards him and the situation he was in. Definitely, this was something that was worthy of misfortune that he had mentioned. She had been in the same situation and truly, truly felt pity towards him.

She made a decision. If he died, she was going to do the good thing and give him back that 1000 Yen. After all, she had heard that when one died, they had to pay someone to get across the something-or-rather. Not only that but he would get the benefit of having something that smelled like her on the way!** [2]**

She nodded at her kindness yet watched the boy as he opened his eyes, lightly breathing as he stood up, picking up the hammer and steeling himself. He gulped and stared towards Frenda, the girl almost looking away ashamed and embarrassed at the look that he was giving her.

It wasn't one of hate like what she had been accepting. Instead it was one of understanding, an understanding of the situation that he was in and accepting it for what it was.

Yet at the same time, there was an aspect of determination and willpower that Frenda had never seen within someone unless they were about to die. Granted, he definitely was but these as well as the true acceptance of the situation made her look away in shame at having put him in the situation and embarrassment.

She did not think she could reach his level.

He moved forward regardless of the situation around him.

And that was something that Frenda had yet to reach.

"Everyone." The boy spoke, his voice loud as he looked only at the toys in front of him.

He grit his teeth.

He tightened his grip on the hammer as he spoke once more.

"Everyone get away!" The boy shouted at the top of his lungs, people backing away from the boy to which then boy looked towards Frenda who flinched at his gaze, ready to move away however…

No….was this really the right thing to do? She had wanted to do something for Frenda, simply wanted to give her something that she had plenty of in order to make a small difference towards the sister that she loved so much.

That was definitely not wrong but was it at the cost of something else?

Did this boy not have family?

Did he not have someone that he did not want to leave no matter what?

She felt ashamed that she had brought this upon someone else, someone that truly wanted to live and had wanted to make sure everyone else did.

She, Frenda Seivelun, would not kill this person. He was not a target for assassination, nor was he a criminal of the world. He was just a normal boy who seemed to be passing. That was all he was and all he would be.

So was this right?

Was this what Frenda herself wanted?

Why had she done this in the first place?

Why had she-

Frenda Seivelun blinked and went white in the face as she realised one, very basic point, something that she should have known in the very beginning.

She had wanted to give Fremea something that she had plenty of.

Something that she had plenty of!

"Wait! I'd forgotten! Basically, don't do it because I have plenty more!" she shouted in the chair in front of the boy as the boy himself went wide eyed.

Yet it was too late.

The hammer had been swung-

* * *

"O-Onee-chan!? What happened to you?!"

Frenda looked at her little sister, Fremea Seivelun in the dimly lit street. While the day had already passed, the hell that Frenda had endured had not ended with the day. Blood covered her hands however it was not the tragic scene that one might have thought it would have been upon looking at the scene for the first time.

"B-Basically, I ran into an idiot and he caused me a lot of trouble."

Her clothes were a mess, cuts in most places with her beret having a large cut in it as well as the colour red in it. Her top and stockings were covered with the remains of smoke and Frenda's face itself did not appear to look very amused in regards to the situation at hand.

The reason of course was obvious, looking back at the previous events.

_"Wait! I'd forgotten! Basically, don't do it because I have plenty more!" she shouted in the chair in front of the boy as the boy himself went wide eyed._

_Yet it was too late._

_The hammer had been swung-_

_Yet as the boy move for the downswing, both of them stared at the fact that the hammer was no longer in the boy's hands._

_"Eh?"_

_"Eh?"_

_They both said that at the same time as Frenda watched the faces of those around them, noting how they were following something that was flying through the air, heading towards the opposite side of the road, where the practically empty petrol station was located._

_She stood up, following the hammer's flight with her eyes, the boy frowning as he turned around and went wide eyed as he saw the flight of the hammer as it approached the station._

_"Oh shi-!" He cried as he immediately threw the table towards the ground, the rabbit dolls falling towards him as he vaulted the table and tackled Frenda to the ground, using the table as a shield for something that had yet to happen._

_The boy pulled Frenda close and she went red in the face as she pushed against the boy's face._

_"H-Hey, basically what the hell do you think-!?"_

_Her words were never answered as the hammer completed its flight, smashing into a gas pump on the opposite side of the road in a physics defying stunt, imbedding itself into the pump, gasoline leaking out as the clash of metal on metal caused sparks to fly from the impact._

_Sparks that ignited the leaking fuel._

_However even though that was the case, the fact that the hammer had imbedded itself in the gas pump was enough to ignite the entire pump, the pump exploding as flames engulfed it, enveloping the car that had been filling up at the same place, the owner looking in shock from where he was paying inside the station._

_Yet there was only one thing that could happen._

_The car exploded, tires and glass flying in all directions as a fireball engulfed it as it was blown into the air, flipping and landing upside down in an almost perfect fashion._

_While the exploding parts of the car did not reach the other side of the road, if they had the table would have served as the perfect cover. Yet given the fact that they were both safe, Frenda pushed the boy away who seemed stunned that that had been the end of it._

_"Hey, get off me you per-!"_

_*sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss*_

_The hissing sound filled her ears as she went wide eyed as she looked over the table towards the rabbit dolls that had fallen from a decent height, onto the ground, the impact setting of one thing._

_It was a soft sound but it was definitely there._

_"The fuse!"_

_"Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?!" cried the boy as he pulled her back under the cover as the hissing sound filled the air. It was soft, evident of one bomb as it continued as Frenda grit her teeth and closed her eyes as she awaited-_

_*ssssssssssssssssssssssssssSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS*_

_The hissing got louder as Frenda opened her eyes in realisation of what she was hearing. Why were there two fuses? That didn't make sense. After all, she knew that a bomb was in at least one of the toys…_

_She realised her mistake._

_While she had always assumed that there was a bomb in one of the toys, she knew for sure that there was a bomb in at least one of the toys. Logically speaking, it would have been easy for her to determine which one had the bomb._

_As the toys weighed the same, the bomb would have given extra weight meaning that the heavier toy was the one with the bomb._

_Yet what if they both had bombs?_

_If that was the case then the bombs that weighed the same, paired with the toys that weighed the same would lead to a situation where both toys would weigh the same. Thus meaning that the reason why she couldn't determine which one was the bomb because of weight was because of the fact that-_

_"Wait! Why are these two fuses!?" shouted the boy as he looked towards the girl who made the cutest look he could as she laughed._

_"Tee hee?" she said nervously._

_"'Tee hee' isn't the thing to say! So are you telling me that I would have chosen the Bad Toy regardless?! I should have guessed! Such-"_

_The boy never finished as both bombs exploded, the force of the blow resulting in the boy and Frenda being blown backwards into the restaurant from the blast, smashing through the window and landing inside._

_People screamed outside as they were blown back as well from the two bombs however the closest people of the boy and Frenda were the only ones that been harmed the greatest as they had fallen through the window, landing on a table before rolling off and hitting the ground, both of their bodies covered with dirt and smoke from the blast._

_They both coughed as they lay on the floor of Joseph's, the boy's body on top of Frenda's as she opened her eyes and realised the situation that they were both in, going red in the face as she saw the provocative position and further red as she noticed where the boy's hand was currently located._

_Luckily, it was not on her breast._

_Well perhaps not luckily. Because it was currently somehow located underneath her dress, the boy's fingers brushing against a place beneath her hipbone as the boy's fingers touched something papery underneath it._

_"My…1000 Yen?" the boy asked, dazed as he blinked upon realising where it had been located in the first place, going red faced as he tried to stand up however Frenda screamed, slapping the boy in the face as he fell backwards, not collecting his money as he hit the ground as Frenda backed away from him, covering her body with her hands._

_"You….you…..you….."_

_"Wait! It's a misunderstanding! This is your fault anyway! I-I think that you should pay for this damage at the very least! I had nothing to do with this!" shouted the boy as the owner appeared to assess the damage, looking at the two people that had caused the chaos and turned towards the boy._

_"You! What did we tell you about coming back here?!"_

_"Last time wasn't me either!" shouted the boy towards the manager however Frenda trembled as she looked towards the boy, stealing a knife that was lying near her as she looked towards the boy with tears her eyes._

_"Basically….you're going to take responsibility!"_

_"Let's think about context right thereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" shouted the boy as he saw the weapon, standing up and running out of the restaurant with Frenda in pursuit as she threw the knife towards him, missing as she chased him._

_"Come back here you bastard!"_

_"Why did this have to happen to me?! Such misfortuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"_

"I don't want to talk about it Fremea. But I think I turned into one of those violent characters in games that you love so much."

"N-Nyahh?! Essentially, did you win in the best way that you could Onee-chan?!" asked Fremea with sparkles in her eyes as she looked towards her older sister, Frenda sticking out her tongue and winking.

"Of course! Who do you think I am?" she asked her to which she reached under her dress and pulled out a small rabbit doll that she handed to Fremea.

"But this is for you."

"Hmm? What is it for Onee-chan?" asked Fremea as she looked towards the rabbit doll with a curious expression as Frenda put a finger her chin, trying to think of an excuse but being unable to.

"Well, let's just say that this is for you being a good girl. Is that OK?" She asked her to which Fremea tilted her nod yet nodded with a perfect smile on her face, bringing the rabbit closer towards her as she hugged the doll with all her might.

"Thanks Onee-chan! Essentially, I can hit it all I want right?" she asked her to which Frenda grinned.

"Basically, of course! This onee-chan has removed all danger from it so you can be sure of that!" she said confidently as Fremea nodded.

"But this one has the red stuff on your hands as well. It smells funny." she remarked as she sniffed it to which Frenda looked away sheepishly.

"W-Well basically, it's nothing to concern yourself with Fremea-chan. Let's get you something to eat though right?"

"Essentially, nothing with peas nyah!"

"Yes, yes I know. Maybe we'll go to the store and get some canned mackerel." she remarked.

She grabbed her sister's hands as Fremea whistled A Certain Tune as she swung her arms in an exaggerated fashion as Frenda watched her do so with a smile on her face as they walked through the crowds, the girl of the darkness moving.

While she had ended lives herself, at the same time, she knew that those lives had lived on without her knowing. While they had ended at her hand, almost as if they were destined to do so, they had still lived without her knowing. And while there were people she did not want to associate with because of their nature, mainly Hamazura, she did have to admit that there was one thing that she had in common with him and with everyone.

She would eventually experience loss.

Whether it be through her death or the death through others, the fact that the stage was only for her left perhaps a lasting impression when she thought about it. While there were players that occupied the stage with her, it would all be over once she left that stage.

The play would end, the final act being hers and hers alone.

Frenda Seivelun knew that experience would be inevitable for her and even Fremea. The thought scared her, even though it was something that she knew she had accepted the moment that she had taken a life.

Everyone was hesitant to leave that stage.

They just wanted to act a little bit more.

But the reality was entirely different.

What would happen when Frenda herself left? She knew that it was going to happen and logically, as she was the older sister that meant that given they had the same life span, Frenda would be the one to leave the stage first. This was something that was also made truer given her 'occupation' but even so, she felt that twinge of selfishness.

She did not want to die.

If anything, she did not want to leave Fremea.

But it would eventually happen.

What type of mark would be left? What could she leave behind in order to show Fremea that perhaps there was that aspect of her that would stick with her forever? Was there anything that would fill the gap that Frenda knew she would leave when she left forever?

She did not want to see Fremea cry. But she knew that it would happen, whether she wanted it or not.

But who would take her place? Would anyone be able to do so, to fill that gap of 'sister' that Frenda herself possessed?

The problem with a connection like that was that they always hurt when they ended.

Frenda did not want to see it happen and she knew that Fremea probably didn't either. But that was the reality that she would leave behind after she left.

So would that doll provide something to soften the blow? Would the doll of her love indicate to Fremea that truly, truly, felt her to be her precious family?

Would it show-

"Hey, hey." said Fremea as she stopped swinging her arms, bringing the rabbit doll close to her chest as she stopped walking, Frenda turning around and facing her smaller sister in the street in the darkness that was lit.

"Hmm? What is it Fremea?" she asked her little sister.

Fremea clutched onto the doll a little bit tighter as she looked towards her big sister, speaking the words that came to her mind as naturally as naturally could be.

"I love you Frenda."

Fremea said that with a smile as Frenda blinked once, before closing her eyes and sighing, kneeling down and brushing Fremea's hair out of her face as she kissed her small forehead.

And Frenda Seivelun smiled in return.

"And I love you too Fremea."

Family was a bond that could be turned away, but would always be there, like a mark on one's soul. The stage would eventually be left but even so, Frenda knew that as long as those words held true, Fremea would have something to stand for.

Because, she was family.

And Frenda Seivelun loved her little sister.

"But, nyah, how are we going to pay for the mackerel? Can we use that 1000 Yen that I saw in your dress there Onee-chan? Why are they so close to your panties?"

Frenda let loose a hearty laugh as she wiped a tear from her eye, lifting Fremea by the legs in a piggy back as she moved forward, holding onto Fremea's legs as tightly as she could in the small silence of the City.

"That's a long story Fremea. Hopefully you will never meet that idiot as long as you live."

And they both walked along, the Seivelun sisters.

They did not know what lay ahead of them but that did not matter as they walked, Fremea on Frenda's back with a smile on her face and rabbit doll in her arms.

It was a pure smile, something that was mirrored on Frenda's face.

Did they need a reason to be happy in each other's presence?

They had their own lives but both of them knew one thing.

They were family.

And perhaps that was why Frenda Seivelun wanted to occupy that stage perhaps a little longer.

* * *

**[1] I tried to make this story set in between when Touma first met Hamazura, SS1, but BEFORE Volume 14. Logically speaking I suppose this was really the only time in the Timeline where Touma could meet Frenda after meeting Hamazura.**

**[2] Refers to Charon, the ferryman that one has to pay to get to Hades. A coin usually has to be paid, or in this case 1000 Yen to cross the Rivers Styx and Acheron.**

**DONE!**

**This is actually the first 'new' one-shot that has appeared in this project. Logically speaking, for those that read this, you can think of it as one of two things: Touma meeting Frenda and the idiocy that results or the bond between the Seivelun sisters. Personally, I wrote it with a focus on the latter as Touma's name is never mentioned but also because of the fact that we never really see their bond.**

**In the Index universe (or Raildex, whatever), the main bond of sisters is perhaps that of the Kumokawa sisters and to a lesser extent the Birdway sisters. But ever since Frenda died, I think that the gap that was there needed to be filled. Thus the point of this one-shot.**

**Not only that but it gave me the chance to write Frenda in. I hope that you approve. I mean what with the projects like A Certain World of Darkness, Twist of Fate and A New ROAD of Misfortune (accredited to SilverFang88, ADdude and Itherael respectively), many people have started to move forward with Frenda and her 'gap'.**

**I felt then that somewhat I should give it a go but using a context that perhaps Frenda might be faced with.**

**While Accelerator feels redemption of the deaths that he caused, reflective of perhaps how he understands the nature of it, Frenda really didn't get that much from what we saw. In a sense then, she is like Hamazura who fights for her sister who she loves.**

**But Frenda!**

**I really wanted to show the family bond that was lost however their sisterly love remains regardless with the thought that Fremea knows that Frenda loves her and vice versa. I do suppose that whatever we put our family through, we love them. I guess Frenda though wanted to state that through this way.**

**But that is all for me.**

**I hope that you enjoyed this.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**Of course they were both bombs! It wouldn't be misfortune otherwise! But 'he' didn't end up getting the 1000 Yen back, even though he touched it…..**


	5. The Distance Between Them

**Right! Well, it's been a while since I actually touched my keyboard in order to write one of these. I'm currently bored and trying to look at any situation where I can write in the small time that I have no in my hands so I'd thought I'd get back onto this small series of one-shots.**

**I'm not much for intros in this project, after all it's not my main one and there are the chance for so many other opportunities in this world of Index that can be grasped but at the same time, chances are that any character that appears in this will appear in the actual storyline for A Certain Unknown Level 0 at some time. There are exceptions of course, such as Frenda but we'll just see how things go shall we?**

**But for those interested in what lays for the future of A Certain Unknown Level 0, I am writing the last chapter of the next arc and when I am done, I'll be show to get the other arc underway! What with exams and study, I have no time for this apart from like 30 minutes before I call it a night but I really what to continue with this sort of work. I hope for those that await this then are patient to stick with me.**

**First and foremost though, I want to make note of something here. As this is a fanfic that is comprised of trying to get some kind of input from you guys, the current fanfic is entirely made by suggestion. Here it is, by Guest who asked:**

Can you do a story based on Kuroko, or a preview for Kazari's arc also one for Mikoto and Saten and also one for Mii and Mitsuko, pretty much one for all the Railgun girls. And also one where Accelerator and Shiage hang out with the Delta Force. Sort for so many suggestions.

**Well, here we are with such a story but in the end, I tried to include them all together into one story will a cameo (well I say cameo) from a person that does not seem to be in many fanfics as of late. Instead her alter ego is, but I'll skip past letting you guys guess and enjoy the Railgun gang as they are meant to be seen; in a world where one can truly be lax.**

**I hope that you enjoy this.**

**And before I'd start, I'd like to thank PokeRescue18 for his contribution towards this project. Without him, I am sure that we would never have actually gotten this far so it is nice to know that ever since he got on board, I have had the chance to make both him and you guys happy with my imagination.**

**And I'd also like to thank you: the reader. This has nothing to do with my main project so it is nice to know that there are some people out there that remember its exists from time to time.**

**Thanks so much and I hope that you enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

The Work that No One Considers. _Idol_Talk._

"Wow! Is this really the backstage!? Is it?! Uiharu, give me that camera! I'm going to become the hero of an Arisa fansite with these pics! I just know it!"

Saten Ruiko let out that shout as she stood in the backstage of the large dressing room. It was entirely white, something that the lights overhead seemed to make shine even more than they should have and the entire room was entirely clean. Unlike what most animes she had seen suggested, there were no people moving about, yelling in frustration nor where there overly rabid fans hanging outside with cameras, ready to take a picture of the star.

Although her friend, Uiharu Kazari did not have a camera on her, Saten took the chance to whip out her phone and rapidly take pictures left, right and centre of the dressing room itself. While there was no mess in it, the dressing room was not entirely empty.

Clothes racks and different coloured, flashy outfits lay along one side of the dressing room, a singular chair on the opposite side of the room in a front of a large mirror that seemed to cover the entire of the wall.

"Sorry to intrude like this." Misaka Mikoto said that apologetically to the person that had invited them while Shirai Kuroko, in her wheelchair seemed to drool at the sight of the outfits, various flashing images of her Onee-sama wearing such things going through her head, thus creating more images and more images.

She had heard that the storage capacity of the brain was either between 10 terabytes or even 2.5 petabytes but with the high quality of these images, she was sure that somehow, she would lose some in transit. She could never let that happen!

"Don't let them disappear on meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" she shouted that comment randomly, leaving the occupants of the room to look at her with strange expressions before they continued what they were doing, Saten taking pictures, Shirai storing pictures with Uiharu and Mikoto looking at the outfits that were on the clothes racks that lined one entire wall.

And their host?

"Ah, no I'm sorry for what happened before. Not only did you save me, Misaka-san, but I made you all experience something that might have left some terrible scars. Although I can't thank you enough, this is all I can do. I hope it's enough."

Meigo Arisa stood next to Mikoto with an angelic smile on her face. While Mikoto and Shirai wore their Tokiwadai uniforms, it seemed as though Saten, Uiharu and Arisa had it more simply, wearing casual clothes. Of course, it seemed as though Arisa herself wanted to wear something that seemed to fit her perfectly: jeans with a beret type hat with a dove paired with an almost cream coloured jacket covering a shirt with polka dots on it.

"No, not at all! I mean, the culprit of those explosions where you were performing was never found were they? I'm more surprised that you still want to sing." remarked Mikoto as she looked at the two Judgment members that were with her for some sort of confirmation and Uiharu answered as Shirai was the hard decision about whether to remove files from the 'Shower Scene' folder to make room in the 'Idol Costume' one for her Onee-sama.

"Unfortunately, it seems as though Orbit Portal wanted to use an outside investigative task force when it comes towards incidents surrounding the Endymion and Arisa-san's concerts. I believe they were called…..the Black Crows? They are a privately owned civil affairs resolution unit that that loli president is using. While Judgment and Anti-Skill are a part of the investigation in a minimal aspect, the Black Crows bear most of the work." she reported as Saten continued to take pictures, not particularly caring about the reference to the incident that she herself had been a part of only days before.

"Y-Yes. It does seem to be the case. While I am glad that Ladylee Tangleroad-sama gave me the chance to take on this role for the Endymion, it does pain me to hear that there are people that are opposed to the idea." replied Arisa with a faint smile on her face with her eyes closed.

Mikoto looked at the girl, not saying anything in regards to the fact that she was hiding the 'windows to the soul' that the eyes seemed to be. While she said that she was fine with the attention she was getting, Mikoto found it hard to believe it to be the entire case.

Someone had been trying to destroy the concert that Meigo Arisa was going to perform in. Who was it and why were they trying to do it? Was there some kind of goal at stake? What happened with Arisa afterwards? Was Ladylee Tangleroad offering her some of protection?

Perhaps it was because she was a Level 5 that she felt as though she needed to know the answers to those questions in order to make a difference but Mikoto did not feel like prying into Arisa's own affairs.

But even so…

"Well if you ever need some sort of help, you can always talk to me. Kuroko and Uiharu-san as well. They are both members of Judgment so even in an unofficial capacity, I'm sure that they can help you in some way." she said with a smile of her own as Arisa looked towards her and nodded in response.

Saten stopped taking pictures momentarily, pausing as she noticed the fact that Mikoto had not made notice of her name. Why should she? She was a Level 0 after all, only here in the capacity as being a friend of a friend of Meigo Arisa. It wasn't enough to bother her but it was enough to make her pause and recall something that had plagued her only two months ago.

The Level Upper.

"…But Arisa-san!" Saten immediately turned around and looked towards Arisa as she shook her phone in the air without a care. In order to fool her friends and Arisa about her own weakness, the first thing that she had to do was fool herself.

There were always more things that one's Level when it came to ability. The person in front of her, Meigo Arisa was a perfect example of such.

"Yes?" asked Arisa awkwardly towards the girl that was clearly a fan of hers. There was nothing wrong with that but Saten seemed to have her eyes sparkle in a strange way, similar to the way Shirai's were as she turned towards the more revealing outfits that Arisa had the chance to wear.

"Since when did you think to yourself that 'becoming an idol' was the thing to do? I mean, it's not really the option that many people usually take!" she remarked as she looked towards one of the clothes, taking it off the rack and putting it in front of her as if she were modelling it herself.

"I mean, normal people like me never ever think that we will ever have the chance to wear something like this." She gave a twirl with the clothes that she had put in front of her as if she were wearing them before stopping and looking at Uiharu with a grin.

"Oooooh! The life of an idol seems so removed from what we always think it was. I-I mean we were Arisa-san's managers almost two days ago! It seems like a dream come true to have not only a Level 5 and the great Meigo Arisa in one room!" Uiharu's voice was rising as if she too wanted to learn the secret behind Arisa's success as all eyes turned towards Arisa.

She fidgeted nervously, not out of discomfort but for the answer that she had prepared as she poked out her tongue playfully and answered.

"Well, to be honest, it's not something all that great. I'm a Level 0 after all. So without any grades or power, the only thing remarkable about me was my voice. So that was what I chose to hone. And that in turn got me here. I'm proud of myself for everything that I've earned in that time. Not only that but there are so many people that love me and my music! If anything, it is those people that truly are the stars here."

Arisa spoke her in a light hearted tone as if suggesting that it were the people that were her supporters were the true form behind Meigo Arisa the idol. She truly felt thanks towards those people and there was no tone in her voice that suggested that she was looking down on anyone.

"I've only ever had my voice. So it was the only thing that I felt that I had to work on. So I merely tried and tried. I tried until something came out of it and I am glad that I chose something that I love doing so much. And that in turn has meant that I have met some people that I can never ever forget no matter how distant our lives might feel."

She spoke with a growing smile on her face as if she were recalling a memory that placed as something in her mind that was so perfect that she would treasure it as long as she would live. Her hand was placed close to her chest as it clenched, as if keeping that memory close to her chest; refusing to let it go no matter what.

"And despite what happened to me, despite what people think of me and my songs having miracles, in truth, the only miracle that is happening is that I have finally had the chance to realise my dream. It might be selfish…but that miracle is perhaps the one thing that I am proud to have achieved."

She finished, but even so, the radiance in her tone seemed to suggest something among the four students of Academy City when they looked at the person known as Meigo Arisa.

They all had their own dreams and goals. They all worked hard for them in order to make sure that their future was set in stone, so that the future lay in their hands, something that they could mould to whatever shape they saw fit. It was selfish, self-centred and something they only wished for.

But at the same time, it was what pushed them forward.

And the fact that Meigo Arisa had achieved such, through nothing with her pure willpower and ability only showed the distance that lay between her and those that were there.

The distance between Meigo Arisa and Uiharu Kazari. With her ability as a hacker and her position as a middle school student, seeing someone with their future at the forefront of their mind was something that she could only look in awe at.

The distance between Saten Ruiko and Meigo Arisa. She was also a Level 0, seeking something more than what she currently had in terms of power. Saten had chosen a method that did not rely on her own ability and seeing someone achieve something that she did not with their own ability only made her wish that she had been stronger. As well as the fact that there was a chance for her to grow even more as an esper.

The distance between Meigo Arisa and Shirai Kuroko. She had never seriously thought about her future, about from that with Mikoto. Was it time for that to change? Was it time for her to look towards her time in Judgment and ask where that was going to lead her? She asked those questions, only in response to the fact that there was that gap in reality between the two.

And the distance between Meigo Arisa and Misaka Mikoto. Mikoto had achieved the rank of Level 5. But where did that leave her now? Had she seriously given thought to her life from now? It seemed more like the role of someone older than her but she had ability, just like Arisa. But what happened now?

The distances between them was shown instantly, leaving the four of them looking at Arisa from a long distance even though the dressing room itself was small. They were not jealous, they did not resent Arisa for the effort she had put in. They were proud for what she had done and achieved but it definitely left lasting feelings within them all.

They merely had to move forward.

That simple message seemed to have more impact in their minds than ever before as they watched the girl that was achieving her dream.

In response to what she said, Shirai Kuroko gave a small sigh in response, an annoyed expression forming on her face as she realised the one thing off in what Arisa had said.

"But at the same time, that same miracle is one that other people are trying to stop. I might not have much said in what goes on behind the scenes of Orbit Portal but blocking out Judgment and relying on only the Black Crows makes this difficult for you." Shirai turned towards Arisa, a more serious expression on her face, possibly reflective of the one thing that Shirai wanted to do.

She merely wanted the chance to protect the reality that Meigo Arisa was facing. She was not doing so out of favour but rather because of the fact that Arisa was doing something that Shirai had yet to do herself on two accounts: realising her own dream and living her future. Shirai and the others were hardly focusing on either so she truly wanted to make sure that Arisa, who was doing so, had the chance to continue to do so as well.

That was merely the distance between them.

So Shirai asked one question towards her.

"So what is Orbit Portal doing about your security? Are you in contact with the Black Crows for that purpose? Where do you even live, strictly speaking if you are not to tell me that is fine but I would like to know, as well as Onee-sama and the others too, if you are in a safe location." remarked Shirai towards her.

She had moved the wheelchair further into the room, Mikoto pushing on the wheelchair handlebars as if to push the chair forward as Arisa moved into the room as well. Uiharu and Saten had already moved towards the chairs on the side of the wall with the giant mirror while Arisa and the others sat down.

It was in this context that Shirai asked her question, to which Arisa opened her question.

Numerous things happened in this one moment that, if Saten had taken a picture, would have made her a goddess on the Arisa fan sites.

Meigo Arisa opened her mouth almost immediately however her facial expression froze as soon as she did. Her eyes seemed to pop out of her head as she seemed to realise the answer she was about to say before she went slightly red in the face from embarrassment. Yet as the gears turned inside her head, she soon came to realise something else.

Her face seemed to grow even redder from said realisation as she hung her head, steam almost coming from her face that seemed to generate warmth enough to cook an egg.

Those that were inside the room opened their mouths in shock at the facial expression with thought processes that went along the lines of:

_She's so damn cute! B-But this expression…It can only be one thing! We must investigate!_(Saten, Uiharu and Mikoto).

_N-No, I won't fall for this! I-I must embrace Onee-sama before I get pulled into this centre of gravity of someone that clearly has reached something that I haven't! Commence rapid fire opening of 'Sleeping', 'Panties' and 'Swimsuit' foldeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs! __(_Shirai).

Shirai seemed to go white in the face as she looked at Arisa however feline expressions seemed to grow on the faces of the other girls that were there.

"Oh ho ho? What is this Arisa-san? Do you perhaps have something else that increases the distance of us from you?" asked Saten with a cheeky grin on her face as Uiharu covered her face with her hands.

"Ah, this is what idols are! Don't tell me that this is the classic shoujo setting where you are conflicted with the childhood friend and the idol of your dreams! I-Is it Hitotsui Hajime!?" blurted out Uiharu with confidence.

"What!? You and Hajime-sama!?" asked Saten with curiosity in her eyes that seemed to want to be fed, clearly a fan of the boy idol as well.

"N-No, it can't be! I-I mean are you really of that age already?! H-How have you managed? Y-You don't have to answer if you don't want to. It's not like I want to seriously know what you've been doing in such a field!" Mikoto said that in a voice that was almost too high pitched with a similar red face towards Arisa as she asked her question however everyone was focused on Arisa to notice the clearly tsundere response.

"I won't accept that some ape has managed to infiltrate the mind of Meigo Arisa! But you will always belong to me Onee-samaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Shirai let out that shout, teleported straight out of the wheelchair and appeared right in front of Mikoto, the Level 5 esper dodging expertly as she raced towards Arisa's side, grabbing her arms meaning that Shirai was sticking out of the floor like some deformed javelin, silently crying as she felt her position was taken already.

"Can you please tell us what happened!?" Although both Saten and Uiharu had moved in front of Arisa with eagerness in her eyes, the voice seemed to come from Mikoto the loudest. Arisa herself seemed more flustered than embarrassed as she looked away, sweat forming on her forehead.

"N-No. I mean i-it's not like he thinks anything about me. We're just friends…" She trailed off, as if seeking something else from the relation that she had before sighing. She seemed to mull something over before nodding to herself before looking at the group.

"Ok. I need to tell someone. I need to know and confirm what it is inside myself. I want a confirmation if anything else. B-But please don't tell anyone outside this room what I am about to tell you!" said Arisa with an almost pleading voice as the eyes of the girls shone before Mikoto stood up.

She looked around, closed her eyes and waited for a moment, the others looking at her in confusion before nodding to herself.

"Sorry," she said as she waved a hand. "Just checking for some kind of electromagnetic wave from some kind of listening device. There is nothing so your secret is safe with us. Right guys?" asked Mikoto to which there was a chorus of nods and a grumble from Shirai in the floor.

Arisa gave a deep breath, sighed before she looked at the costume that she was going to wear for her next performance; something that looked like a sea captain's outfit with the colours of purple with the midriff showing and most of her thighs. This was nothing more than a costume of a stage and what she was about to say was surely something of the same ilk.

All she needed to do was perform. To play the role of Meigo Arisa perfectly.

"Alright. I live with someone who took me in when I had no place to go."

Open mouths of pure astonishment seemed to come from Saten, Uiharu, Mikoto and even Shirai who poked her head out of the floor.

While they had expected some sort of shoujo setting, not to this extent!

"H-He lives in a completely male student dorm with a roommate who is someone who just has been as kind to me as he has. I am in both of their depth but…'he' has shown me something that I didn't think that I would find in this time of my life, especially with that attack."

"And that is?" Mikoto's voice was a whisper, soft and gentle as if going with the flow of Arisa's words.

"Myself." Arisa replied instantly.

"I…was unsure about how to deal with the threat that was before me. It has happened before but when it did, he was there for me even though he was a complete stranger that I had only met that day. But he still took me in. Not only that but he showed me that anything that happens is the fault of those that are committing it. It isn't mine. He showed me that I should be happy that I can sing and that he would hold my hand as I walked across the stage to make sure that I did so without hurting anyone."

Saten looked at Uiharu for some kind of confirmation for the event that Arisa was talking about however the flower headband girl was focusing completely on Arisa's words.

"But still he took me in. He's fed me, let me sleep in his room and even showed me that if I move forward with the belief that I can prove something to myself, then everything will be fine."

She smiled to herself, a brightness in it that the girls had not seen before as she looked at them straight in the face.

"He is an ear that has listened. He is the belief that I felt that I never thought I could have when I was overcome with doubt. Just when I think any day can be normal, he always surprises me. But that last point isn't something that is just confined to him." Arisa let out a small laugh before she blinked and realised that perhaps she shouldn't have done that as she covered her mouth.

"Just this morning, he choked on a glowstick, his roommate ate both our portions of breakfast and when we went shopping for groceries, every soft drink can he touched exploded in his face."

The responses of what could only be described as the world placing someone in the position of punching bag filled the girls with confusion as Arisa seemed to pull back the laugh before smiling once more.

"He treats me not as Meigo Arisa the idol but rather as Meigo Arisa, the girl who only has a dream that she is working for. He shines in a different way to me but in such a fashion that I can't help but look at him and wonder how he can be the way he is. So relaxed yet frustrated, so fortunate yet unlucky and so normal yet so kind."

Meigo Arisa took a breath and spoke once more, letting out the words that she felt she had to speak in order to reach a conclusion within herself.

"I am in his debt, both to his roommate and to him. And it is with them that I feel as though I don't need anyone to protect me. Because it with them and him that I feel as though nothing that the world can do can touch me. With him, I am not just a normal girl. With him….I feel as though I can truly achieve that dream that I have wanted for so long."

"With him…"

Arisa seemed to repeat the phrase once more in order to reach the final point that she had come to at the end of what she had expressed within herself. Although she had spoken from her heart, there was one last thing that she needed to reveal towards those that had chosen to listen.

"…I feel as though I don't need to perform in front of a crowd. As long as I can perform in front of him, I'll be just as satisfied."

Meigo Arisa finished, leaving the others looking at her with expressions that only suggested as though they might burst into tears from the raw emotion that she had expressed from her own self. Whatever the result seemed to be, she had chosen to voice herself in front of the crowd in front of her.

And there was only one thing that they could do in response.

"Wah! That's so romantic! It's like he's a prince or the loyal bodyguard that will stand by you through thick and thin!" Uiharu's eyes seemed to sparkle as Saten nodded, putting a finger underneath her chin and smiling mischievously.

"I wonder who it is? Is he here today? Are you going back home to …the _boy's _dorm where you have absolute _privacy_?" She seemed to be suggesting something that wasn't quite R rated but at the same time, Arisa's imagination went wild as she went red in the face as she considered what Saten was and was not suggesting.

"N-No, I just, I mean he doesn't think of me like that! He's fine the way he is now in my eyes." she said flustered as she waved her hands in front of her face.

"But isn't there something else that you can gain from it? Surely you can't be satisfied with what you have now! You are living your dream! D…Don't you want to take that next step?" asked Mikoto eagerly although the faint red blush on her cheeks seemed to imply that she was thinking of doing the same thing towards someone else at some point. Was she looking towards Arisa for some sort of confirmation of bravery?

Arisa seemed to ponder the point however slowly shook her head.

"No…I want what I want. But he also has his own life. And as complicated as it might seem, he values what normal life he has. I don't want to take that away from him. But…you are right. Yet, what can be put off can be put off. I'm…." She hung her head, that same red colour on her cheeks visible once more. "I'm not ready for that yet."

"Hmm. Although, I can't say much for this 'normal' life of this boy you speak of. How does one choke on a glowstick?" asked Shirai in amusement as the others seemed to grin at the thing that Arisa had mentioned, as the girl herself gave a slight grin that seemed lopsided, as if she were conflicted between feeling sorry and burst out laughing.

"His roommate suggested that the luminescent liquid inside was something along the lines of an emergency water supply for the people of the concert. He tried to explain that it wasn't the case and the roommate wanted him to prove that it wasn't what they said it was and tried to out for themselves. He of course stole the glowstick from them and it managed to get caught in his mouth…." She trailed off as if she were remembering the sight of her 'bodyguard' squirming on the floor with the glowstick stuck in his mouth.

"That's rather…." Mikoto started to say something however a part of her mind wandered back towards what the only explanation of what the boy had faced could be called. She felt something kind of inkling as if she knew the person that Arisa was talking about however she shook off the thought.

While that idiot definitely had the misfortune to be forced to face such a situation, he didn't have a roommate. Of that she was sure. At least not one that she knew of. Her suspicions for now were merely that and nothing more but it was Saten that took Arisa hands and spoke.

"But Arisa-san! You have the ability of an idol! What are you waiting for? You want to perform in front of him? To grasp his attention? Look where we are! Think about who _you _are! How can you even consider such a thing in the first place!? It doesn't have to have anything to do with your feelings whatsoever! It has to do with the fact that you want to do it!"

Uiharu seemed confused at first before turning around, her eyes lighting up with the same enthusiasm that Saten had just showed as she grabbed and pulled Arisa to her feet, dragging her towards the opposite side of the room.

"Ah! Wait!" Arisa protested however the two middle school girls paid no heed as they pushed her in front of one of the clothes rack that held the numerous clothes that were placed as either 'drafts' or 'final copies' for the uniforms that she was to wear for her concerts. They stood in front of the 'wardrobe' with amusement on their faces as Mikoto came behind them with a girlish shine in her eyes.

"What are you doing?" asked Arisa however Saten merely tasked and waved her fingers.

"Arisa-san. I think you need to realise the feelings that you have for this boy. There is no other way to define you except as a maiden in love." proudly stated Saten.

Arisa's face seemed to explode red as the statement was so openly said however it slowly receded as she seemed to realise the very basic fact of the matter.

Meigo Arisa, the idol of Orbit Portal and the key figure in the space elevator Endymion, was nothing more than a girl in love.

"So…what do I do?" asked Arisa. While she still maintained the fact that she did not want to advance in order to ruin anything about what she had, there was the chance that something might change in her favour. So she asked her question as she accepted a part of her that she could never let go.

"Simple." Uiharu placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a slight push forward, indicating towards the clothes. "Do what you wanted to do! You said you wanted to perform in front of him? Surely there is a song that you have hidden up your sleeve right Arisa-san?"

"W-Well there is a song that I only just wrote the lyrics for…" She said as if unsure whether to perform her new song in front of just one person.

"Is that _OVER_?!" asked Mikoto with her voice rising however stopped and seemed to retreat as the topic had to focus on Arisa herself.

"Yes. But I don't want to spoil-"

"Then don't." put in Shirai as she moved towards the group. "You wanted to prove something to yourself? You only need to do that then. Just like how I declare my love for Onee-sama! Onee-samaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Shirai's eyes seemed to light up dangerously as she seemed to gain a speed boost ability for her wheelchair as she drove straight towards Mikoto, something that she dealt with by merely pointing towards the wheelchair and roasting the Judgment member.

The group sweatdropped however Shirai still had a point. If Arisa did not want anything to change, then all she had to do was make sure that it didn't in regards to her lyrics. It was only one step and easy to overcome.

The next step though was completely different in regards to that.

"However we still need to add the finishing touches." said Mikoto as she placed a hand underneath her chin as she looked at the open wardrobe, Saten and Uiharu doing the same as well as they looked at the uniforms that Arisa had on display.

"Say guys?" asked Saten as she looked towards Arisa, the girl stiffening slightly.

"Oh yes. Are you thinking what I am Saten-san? Misaka-san?" asked Uiharu as she too turned around and looked towards Arisa, the flowers on her head seeming to practically radiate with idea that were coming from Uiharu's head.

Mikoto turned around as well with a grin on her face as well.

"I always wanted to dress an idol myself. Are you ready for this Arisa-san? We'll make this the best concert that you have never performed!"

The girls basically jumped on Arisa herself as she let out a small squeal in response as they pulled her towards the clothes, taking one after another in order to show it to the girl herself.

"A-At least model for me Onee-sama…" Shirai's wounded wish as she lay of the floor was granted however by the time Mikoto and the others had taken off their clothes to try on some with Arisa, Shirai's consciousness decided to develop a bug.

* * *

She knocked on the door even though she was a resident of the house.

Although she said 'resident' and 'house', the student dorm that she lived in was hardly such and she could hardly think of herself as a 'resident', But still, she knocked anyway after a long day's work and focused on the plan that had formed from the five of them working together despite the fact that she was merely taken for the ride.

But even though she said that, she had been inspired by their words and actions.

To an extent, although they thought that Arisa was the one that stood in front of them, she was the one that had been moved. She was the one that had looked at them and their actions and had taken action because of them.

She, Meigo Arisa who they thought was so fantastic and admirable felt nothing but respect and friendship for all of those people and how they lived their lives. She would not look down on them merely because they had chosen to support her and make her act.

Perhaps that too the distance that existed between them as well.

She had no memories of three years ago. She had carved her way into the world by herself for so long and now she found herself surrounded by those that felt as though they were her friends; Saten, Uiharu, Mikoto, Shirai, her fans and those that she lived with.

She would be sure to pay them back some day.

But for now, she sought to pay back the person that needed it the most, simply because they never sought anything from her except for her to fulfil her selfish desire.

"Go away!" came the sudden response to her knock, something that surprised her. "I've had it with you salesmen bastards! I don't need a fire extinguisher! Or life insurance! Or mental help! I might though if you keep on coming here to sell it to meeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

The door was flung open revealing the stressed out face of a boy, something that caused Arisa to look in shock towards him as he seemed stunned as well, judging by what Arisa was wearing, something that looked like a stage costume for a concert.

"Arisa?" he asked, the girl blinking as she realised that it was him that answered the door and not his roommate.

"Where's Index-chan?" she asked almost instinctively.

The boy paused, still taking in the fact that Arisa had asked a question before blinking once before answering.

"Huh? Oh right, our neighbour's step sister wanted to borrow her for some eating contest that is happening over the opening of the Endymion soon. So she ditched me of course and went to indulge in food. I thought you said in that text that you would be late? I stayed up and made something for you but don't expect much." he replied offhandedly, making Arisa wonder what he had made and how long he had been planning on staying up for.

Although it was selfish though, she wanted to make him do so for even longer.

She only hoped that he would comply.

"What about that outfit though? Are you performing somewhere after soon? Me and Index saw you perform today but not in that outfit. Is there somewhere you have to be?"

"No."

Arisa replied instantly as she looked the boy in the face who seemed confused as to her response.

"But I have one thing to ask of you. Will….will you please listen to me sing?"

It must have sounded ridiculous given the fact that he had just said that he had seen her do so before. She was an idol. Wouldn't she be tired of singing? Didn't she want a rest? Normal people might have asked those questions and in the case of the boy doing so, she planned to refuse until he gave in.

Because she merely wanted to give something back.

Not back to the boy.

But to her boy.

Even if their relationship was something that someone different might have with him right now, in a position similar to her own feelings, she had been tasked by those that were her friends to do this very thing.

And she was going to move forward with that goal in mind.

The boy blinked and tilted his head in confusion as if wondering what in the world Arisa was going on about. After all, here she was, wearing a performing outfit and asking for permission to do something that she was always doing. From an external point of view, one might consider it strange but the answer that the boy gave was perhaps even stranger.

"What are you talking about Arisa? You don't need to knock or ask. You don't even need a reason. This is your dream. And if you are going to share it with me, today and right now despite Index not being here, then I am more than happy to oblige."

He stood back from the doorway to let her in, Arisa responding and stepping inside towards the small dorm room that she had called home for the small amount of time. She looked towards the boy that was standing there with a smile on his face. Arisa clenched the hand that was placed above her heart and returned it.

"I said that we would find a way for you to sing without hurting anyone. But it's all up to you Arisa. Merely doing what you want is enough to make me happy. But since when did you want to perform for me?"

Simple words.

They formed the structure of what the boy was saying and even the structure of what was known as a 'song'.

One could not deny that they held power and one could not deny that Meigo Arisa had felt their influence more than once. She had also shared it, further revealing how important they were in the world surrounding her.

Which only meant that the word she gave in response, the word to allow herself to move forward in her own mind with this boy was enough to set her own small path beyond her goal of performing in front of a crowd.

This was not such a crowd.

This was merely a boy.

But it was perhaps the most important boy that Meigo Arisa could perform in front of.

And that in itself constituted the response that she gave towards his invitation. Was she going to sing? Was she going to perform?

And more importantly, was she going to advance? When had she wanted to perform for this boy in the first place?

"Always."

* * *

**I think I lied here. While the Railgun girls were mentioned, I have a feeling it is not to the extent that some people were hoping for. Not sure what to think about this…..**

**But, Meigo Arisa! I guess to an extent, the theme of the Between the Lines so far has been girls that are forgotten! In order of Misaki, Himegami, the Magic God Othinus, Frenda and now Arisa, it does show to me that there are a variety of characters that can be used in this respect. Not only that it also means that we can write their characters without feeling as though we have destroyed them entirely.**

**If you want a point of placement for the story, I'd say it'd be before the concert around 42 minutes into the movie and after the Touma and Arisa scene at the fountain where she reveals her memory loss. Only Mikoto was shown there out of the characters mentioned so where did the others go?! OVER of course is then the song that they played at the end, not in the credits though.**

**In that sense, what did you think about the Arisa point here? I felt as though it was somewhat important to have but also to emphasis the fact that there was perhaps that gap between the characters in terms of where they stand.**

**Arisa herself as a character might be forgotten but even she had dreams that she was actually attaining. Not many characters have done that. I guess this was the point of distance but there are also points where the other characters shine more than Arisa. Do you think you can point them out?**

**I hope that you guys felt as though I wrote Arisa well. I hardly need explaining who the boy was….**

**I hope you that enjoyed it and look forward to the next update, both for this project and A Certain Unknown Level 0. My thoughts on NT 12 (if you want to hear them) will be there as well, should you choose to disagree or agree with them.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please.**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**Did I even satisfy the condition for the Railgun girls? I have a feeling I strayed A LOT from it.**


	6. The Mark Staining Perfection

**I had no idea that I would write another one of these within so close proximity with each other. Technically speaking, Guest, I did not really answer your request. In this sense, I really want to apologise if you felt as though you were let down. But I did give you an Arisa one that people enjoyed! Unless of course, it was nothing but lies in the reviews. I really hope it was not the case. IT'S ALL LIES as the Internet says.**

**Regardless, while there were a lot of requests in that one thing that 'Guest' asked for, I really feel as though addressing other requests is something that I have to do make sure that everyone is happy. At some point Guest, I will address other parts of that request but we will have to see when I do so.**

**But here is the next Between the Lines! For those wondering about the state of my main project A Certain Unknown Level 0, one arc is done and up for draft however I might wait for the Kamachi crossover to be done before I post anything. Unless I get some massive responses to the contrary.**

**We'll see though but yes, everything is up and ready to be posted here with my thoughts on the new NT novel as well. It might be late and it is nothing but a rant but there it is. However given the short nature of these one-shots, I think as though just typing these out is somewhat refreshing. I hope that you think so as well.**

**And here is the request that was put in a review by ScareCrowFM:**

You know something I have been having in my mind? Birdway's reaction after being "defeated" by Kamijou and her sister or Mark's reaction to her behavior after it, after all she didn't go all out on him for a reason and i would like to see your take on it. Anyway, hopefully you're doing well and will see you in the next installment, take care.

**Thanks for the concern, I'm doing OK however the amount of study, exams, assignments and other things mean that the holidays is the only chance I have had to write with very little time on my hands. Otherwise, it's just haphazard if you know what I mean. So this is the only thing I can do for now. So I apologise if it feels as though I have abandoned this. With regards to this and my main project, I HAVE NOT ABANDONED IT! No idea about my Pokémon one though…..**

**I rarely say much in these intros now…**

**But before I want to go on, I want to thank two people. The first is obviously my beta reader PokeRescue18. His contribution to this has really fixed up any problems that might have been made in this typing so any chance of things of the story flowing smoothly are because of him. In this sense, what constitutes 'reading material' is from him entirely. So thank you man.**

**And the next person to thank would be you: the reader. Without you, and the support that you guys have given me, I can tell you that I would really have not placed that much focus on the projects as I have. In this case, I really want to thank you for your contribution by simply reading.**

**So I hope that you do so and one other thing.**

**Enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

An Injury Related Family Discussion. _The_Adoption_Plan._

"Ow! Dammit Mark why do I have to do everything myself?!" Leivinia Birdway mumbled under her breath while whining like a child, she was 12 years old after all, as she gave a light kick towards his backside which would have normally resulted in him having his head stuck in the ceiling however given their current company, it was unlikely that Birdway would use such power.

Mark Space was truly thankful for that as he retreated to the side of the table that was sitting in the sun, the white table seeming to glow from the sunlight catching it. It was a rare autumn day in London where the sun was out and Birdway was taking the time to finally catch the UV rays to slightly darken her pale skin.

As the leader of the Dawn-Coloured Sunlight, Leivinia Birdway definitely had an aura of someone that would stand above everyone else, her natural charisma allowing her to maintain such a role as leading the largest magic cabal in London. This, as well as her natural power as a magician, made her a definite threat to anyone that thought to cross her path.

And yet, she allowed for her sub-ordinate to stand over with a watchful eye on the patio of the house that they lived in.

However there was a reason for such as Birdway lifted up a glass of cool water to her face where she winced where it touched a part of it that was currently bruised.

"Hey sis. What in the world happened to you in Academy City?" asked a voice on the other side of the table, the girl that was sitting across from her being someone that had the same blond hair that Birdway possessed yet different in a number of ways.

While her blue eyes did not have the same sharpness that Birdway's had, her clothes were more formal, bring that of a track suit of blue and white. She currently was playing music of her headphones however had taken them off upon realising that Birdway was hurt, showing signs of concern on her face.

It was only natural for her to do so after all.

She was Patricia Birdway, Leivinia Birdway's younger twin sister.

The two of them sat at the table on the patio, a number of different sweets and tea lining the table itself, as Birdway stuck a fork into a piece of cake and brought it closer to her own plate, placing the glass of cold water down as she reached for her tea cup.

What Patricia was referring to was obvious. It was the bruise to the side of her face that she had received in the battle for Fräulein Kreutune within Academy City that had happened during the Ichihanaransai, the current date a few days after that. It was a war wound that she had incurred during her time there however in front of others, it was her pride that prevented her from treating such a wound but in front of her sister, she had no qualms attending to the bruise.

It was the mark that stained her perfection.

Yet at the same time, it represented a constant thorn in her side that had dug into her nature to the extent that whenever such the topic came up or whenever she touched the bruise, a face of the person that had caused the bruise came to mind that Birdway knew that she couldn't be mad at, yet at the same time an annoyed rage filled up within her.

"Some idiot did this to me. We got into a heated argument and he had the nerve to punch me in the face. Can you believe that!? What kind of fool would want to damage this?"

'This' obviously indicated towards Birdway's face as she stuffed it with the cake in an exaggerated, annoyed fashion as Patricia smiled nervously towards the fact that her sister was clearly annoyed and not doing anything to hide it.

Yet if that was the case, then what was that hidden emotion that was behind her annoyed tone? Patricia knew it immediately however she felt as though leaving it be for a moment would be best until she knew more details. If anything, she had the role of the inquisitive, curious little sister!

"Well I never knew that you would hang out with people such as that Leivinia. Was he a tour guide or something?" asked Patricia, ignoring the shaking of a head from Mark as he tried to avoid her to talk about it as she sipped her tea, eyes sparkling in a dangerous fashion.

Whether it be because of his previous experience with her older sister, Mark truly felt fear behind that shine in her eyes and withheld a tear falling from his eye.

"Somewhat. He decided that leading us around the entire City when there was business to deal with was a good idea. And before that he was arrested by Anti-Skill so I should have guessed that he was up to something!" grumbled Birdway as she chewed on her cake with malice, Patricia leaning backwards with a finger on her chin.

"Huh. It sounds like he really led you around on some kind of wild good chase or something. Did you get your business done or was this tour guide constantly in your way?" she asked. Although Birdway had not given details on the work that was inside Academy City, because she had gone there in person, it was likely important to her.

Birdway took a sip of her tea and nodded.

"I guess. But to be honest, it was something that meant that we didn't need to involve him in the first place. If I take that into account, I'm going to not call on him because of his incompetence next time I'm in the City." spat out Birdway as she looked towards another cake on the rack that was in the middle of the table as Patricia took a stab at the one Birdway was eyeing.

She grinned as she put it into her mouth and tilted her head slightly.

"You say that Leivinia, but I really think that you had a good time with that tour guide." remarked Patricia with a smile as she waved her fork in her general direction, leaving Birdway looking at Patricia with a confused look as she swallowed.

"After all, you've been smiling the entire time you touch that bruise. And even though you didn't realise it, I swear there is something of a grin on your face. You tend to do that, say you hate something and then immediately do the same thing to death until you get bored of it." replied Patricia with the same grin that Birdway herself usually possessed when planning something nefarious.

Birdway though in response dropped her fork onto her plate where it clattered, her expression clearly showing just how ridiculous she found the idea, her mouth opened wide.

"What?! Since when? Give me an example right now!"

"Alright, there was that game. That RPG I bought from Japan. You remember, the one with the Japanese gods? You were yelling something about Idol Theory being inaccurate in the conduction of the spells and you did a really big rage quit. You woke me up the next day at 4 in the morning to tell me that you had managed to get past the first level."

"I don't remember that. Give me another example."

"Remember your nightlight? You always tell me that you hate the illumination that it gives off but then always keep it on at night."

"Th-That's because-"

"And how you hate adult but always research those non-alcoholic cocktails?"

"How do you even know about that!?"

"Should I continue?" asked Patricia with a smile as she watched her older sister seeming to be flustered. The girl wondered if it would reach the point where she would flip over the table as a sight gag in response to her anger however Birdway seemed to have enough self-control to not.

Birdway mumbled something and Patricia stole another cake as she waved her fork in the direction of her elder sister.

"But Leivinia, there's something that bothers me. Although it's clear that this…'tour guide' is someone that you clearly have fun with, I mean the way you smile when you touch that bruise and vehemently deny wanting to be near him, but if you got into a fight with him I think you would have won." she said as she stuffed some cake in her mouth.

Her eyes turned to Mark, who seemed to have gone pale in the face as he rapidly shook his head back and forth to make her to stop. Patricia ignored him completely as Birdway gave a raised eyebrow.

"What do you mean 'I would have'? There is no 'would' to it, you disrespectful sister. There is only 'should'. Or do you want to engage in a battle to determine the validity of your hypothesis? Hmm?" asked Leivinia with a challenging tone in her face as she leaned forward.

"Yeah, that's not going to work with me. But whenever you do something, you always do so until you win. Seeing you…just 'give up' when faced with defeat is unlike you. The only person that you've done it with is…."

Patricia's eyes seemed to go wide as she almost swallowed her cake down the wrong way as she dropped her fork as it clattered on the plate that she was using, staring at Birdway with a shocked expression before her mouth curled into a cat-like smile.

"Oh. I see how it is."

"What? Do you want to tell me what you're thinking or do I have to beat it out of you?"

Patricia pointed her finger towards Birdway while still maintaining that smile.

"No, see you won't do that. _Because I'm you sister_, I doubt that you would fight me. But the fact that you did not take this fight with this 'tour guide' seriously enough to win…" Patricia grinned, showing all of her teeth as Birdway took a sip of her tea while listening to her sister with a raised eyebrow. At this time Mark Space's head was nothing more than a blur as he shook it back and forth however Patricia paid it no mind as she simply stated:

"Then you must really like him! Although you're not at that age, it's good that you're thinking like a normal girl Leivinia. You know, I was really getting worried about you!"

The spit take that Leivinia conducted with her tea was reminiscent of a whale spouting water from its spout as the liquid flew into the air, Birdway slamming the cup so hard down onto the table that it broke…..and so did the cup.

The small hole in the table where the cup had been almost made Mark wonder how surprising the statement was if she was willing to use her monstrous strength despite the fact that she wanted to keep Patricia away from the Magic side as much as possible.

"C-Could you please say that again so that I can respond properly by hitting you really, really hard!?"

"Heh heh. You won't fool me with that Leivinia! Spill it! Is this guy a _really _good friend of yours? I mean, you must have held back for sure! Oh, is he a boyfriend?! Or have you not reached that stage yet?" asked Patricia with a sneaky smile as Leivinia, who was almost brought to tears from allegations where it was impossible for her to rip apart the instigator, turned towards Mark.

"Oi! You tell her that she's wrong! There's no way that anyone could develop any kind of romantic feelings towards that fool of a person! No way whatsoever!"

"Ohhhhhhhhh! Mark, you know him? Tell me, what is he like? Is he handsome? What does my sister like about him? Have they done anything…No. Leivinia. You're too young for that!"

"Stop getting ideas into your head that are clearly not there you delusional airhead!" shouted Birdway however it was Mark that responded in the way that he best knew how to do so.

Confirming what Patricia was thinking would serve to have Birdway put him on death row or at least spend an entire day wearing a maid outfit. Denying completely what Birdway said meant that Patricia would likely hound him for all eternity for him to spill his guts. Either way it was judgment at the hands of the Birdway sisters meaning that the only thing that he could do was to answer in a way that both denied and confirmed that they were wanting him to do.

Ironically though, his answer was something along the lines of telling the truth of the matter based on his own observations.

"W-Well, I would say that the Boss doesn't really have romantic feelings for this fellow that you are speaking of." he said nervously as Birdway puffed out her chest in pride, trying to avoid his eyes meeting either party.

"See I told you! Now lick my shoes and beg for forgiveness!" shouted Birdway however it was Patricia that raised an eyebrow in response.

"Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut?" she asked, drawing out the word as Mark seemed to gulp slightly, averting his eyes from Birdway's suddenly hostile gaze specially.

"But," Mark took a deep breath. "FromwhatIhaveheardandabserveditismorethanlikelythatmaybetheindividualyouspeakofhasbeengiventheroleofbigbrotherwithouthisconsent."

His words were fast and hurried and Mark swore that he bit his tongue as he turned away, looking off into the distance hoping that someone up there had the dignity to make sure that he survived the resulting punishment that he was sure to get from Birdway.

"Wait, wait, and wait. What was that? D-Did I hear the words 'big brother' mixed in there?" Patricia's eyes went wide as she spun her gaze towards Birdway and raced over to her before the girl could proceed to kill Mark for what was blatant blasphemy against her.

"Leivinia. I-Is this true? Are we getting a big brother?" she asked with stars in her eyes.

"N-No! Get off me! Mark, I swear that I'm going to rip your oesophagus out of your ass when I'm done with this!" Birdway spat out as Patricia seemed to put a hand to her chin.

"Huh. It makes sense. While I thought that the criteria of 'being immune to serious punishment by Leivinia' was in the form of love, I suppose that the same could be thought of 'family' as well! So, tell me what is he like? He must have done something really major in order for you to think that he has the position of 'big brother' for someone as pompous as you!"

"_Pompous_!?" Birdway seemed to be shocked at the thought however that only suggested that maybe her own personality was something that had to be looked at immediately.

"Can I meet him? I want to! I want to! What's his name? Does he know how to cook? Since he lives in Academy City, what is his esper power?!" said Patricia as she revealed a side to her that was likely reflective of her 12 year old self.

"Get off me! I have no idea what you're saying anymore! Do you really think that I would grow attached to a fool that complain about nothing but misfortune 24/7?!" yelled Birdway as Patricia gained a grin on her face.

"Come ooooooooooon sis. You teased me about that black robed priest when he saved me so now it's your turn to spill the beans! Ah revenge is sweet! You teased about me getting further in life even though nothing went on! It's-huh? Misfortune? Come to think of it, there was that one person that you spoke of when there was that trouble in Academy City! What was it, it had something to do with…..!" Patricia's eyes seemed to go wide as she looked towards her sister with an expression that seemed to suggest that she was thinking nefarious things once again.

"Oh crap."

"It was! It was that guy that you said held you like a princess for the first time! Was that the start? Where the big brother was protecting his little sister? Did he help his little sister when there was no one else there to do so?" **[1]**

"Th-that has nothing to do with it!" Although Birdway denied it with a shout, the rising colour that was coming to her cheeks made it evident that perhaps there was more to what Patricia was saying than someone thought.

"Do you think that he'll help me with my papers? I mean, it the role of the big brother to be supportive of his little sisters!" cried Patricia as her mind seemed to wonder.

"I really doubt that that idiot could help you in any respect with those science papers that you publish! You might be able to conduct some kind of biology experiment with everything that he has been through but that is it!" cried Birdway as Patricia seemed to ignore her.

"Ah, I want to meet him! Say, do you have a picture in your phone or something Leivinia? I want to meet the man that captured my sister's heart!"

"Are you listening to a thing I say?! Damn it, I'm telling you that it isn't the case!"

Patricia once again ignored Birdway's shouts however as time passed on, it was absolutely clear that anything that Birdway would say in regards to her connection with her so called 'big brother' was a standard tsundere response of 'deny with slight colour on the cheeks'.

Patricia turned towards Mark and raced over towards him as she grabbed the front of his Western suit.

"Leivinia is definitely not going to show it but do you have a picture for me Mark!? Do you?"

"For safety reasons, I think that I should prevent myself from speaking on the matter." said Mark with a casual and smart response as Patricia slowly backed away, nodding as she put a hand on her chin, and thinking of a way to get Mark to reveal the information without getting him into trouble.

"Well, I do suppose that I don't want you to feel the revenge of my sister in that sense." replied Patricia with a downcast tone as Mark and Birdway nodded, the latter doing so extremely fast.

"Yeah! So you can just leave it alone right?! You're going to leave the point alone right?!"

"Although you think that you might have got me there sis, there is nothing to stop me from getting what I want! Bwahaha! This is the ability of my Thief skill!" shouted Patricia as she held up what was a cell phone into the air that made both Mark and Birdway look at in shock.

"What the-!? When did you-!?" blurted Mark as he tried to feel where he remembered he had put his phone, only finding that it was not there. H-Had she stolen it when she had grabbed him only seconds before? He hadn't even noticed! He seemed to tremble at the power and ability of the Birdway sisters however Patricia quickly unlocked the phone and went to the pictures.

"You damn brat, you better not even look at the damn thi-"

"Huh? Is it um…..'Kamijou Touma'?"

Birdway's face went entirely pale and red at the same time as Patricia opened the folder, why there was a folder in Mark's phone was anyone's guess however the fact of the matter was that one simple click later, Patricia opened the picture that was there and-

"Whoa! He's smoking hot!"

"Wh-What!? D-Do you really think so?"

"No. I just had to say that to make you seem as though you made a good choice." Somewhere in the world, tears seemed to run down the face of a certain individual for an unknown reason as Patricia looked closer at the picture as Birdway tackled her to the ground and tried to rip the phone from her.

"Seriously though sis? Him? What is so good about him? He looks as though he spends his days running away from pointless problems. I mean the picture that you have isn't the best. Why do you have him being sprayed by a fire hydrant? Although that spiky hair looks cool!" replied Patricia as she gave Birdway a questioning look.

"I have no obligation to say anything to you."

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand delete."

"What the hell do you think you're doiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!? W-Well whatever, I have spares." stammered Birdway as she turned her head away from the girl as Patricia grinned and showed her the picture that she had lied about deleting.

"You know what sis? I think that it's the role of the little sister to support the older in whatever she does. So if you think that this guy is going to be a big brother to the both of us then I'm OK with that! After all, it's entirely your choice on the matter so there is nothing that I can say regarding the point. It's just good to have you moving on in such a way Leivinia. Although I do think as though you need to delete these pictures of him…."

Patricia threw Mark's phone towards him as he caught it expertly while the flustered Birdway was pushed away by her smaller sister who gave her a small hug.

"If you think that he's alright, then I have nothing to say on the matter. But, if you really want to get him to be our big brother then, there is only one thing that you have to say. Think of it as 'the expert words of Master Patricia'!" cried Patricia as she leaned in and whispered words into her ear.

She pulled away when she was done and Birdway shoved a finger into her face.

"No. No, there is NO way that I am saying that. Just who the hell do you think I am!?" spat out Birdway as she slowly stood up with Patricia following and smiling towards my sister.

"I think that you are my precious older sister that can't afford to be honest. But Leivinia, in life you can't always have a night light. Sometimes then, it's important to know that there is someone that can stand next you in order to help you through times like these. I might be your younger sister but I can't always help forever. But if you think that an older brother might be able to, then I say go for it! And use those words that I gave you! If you do, we'll be sure to have a new member of our family soon!"

Patricia smiled and waved, taking a cake with her bare hands as she made her way inside the house without a care turning back only once.

"We're family Leivinia. So I'm with you all the way! Oh, this is so exciting!"

And with that she entered the house, as if what she had said to her older sister was nothing more than a passing remark however Birdway could only listen towards the words that Patricia had said, resounding over and over inside her mind.

Damn it! Why were they still inside her head? She needed a distraction and she knew that there was one definitely close by.

"Mark?"

"Yes Boss?"

"Prepare to die."

The only thing that Mark Space could do in response to the impending death that he knew was coming for his previous actions surrounding the small girl and her brother complex was try and run however the leader of the Dawn-Coloured Sunlight quickly caught up.

As this fanfiction is T-rated, the resulting massacre has been censored.

* * *

"I don't care which side you get but I'm getting inside. This jetlag is just too much and I'm-"

Lessar of New Light said those words as she lazily placed the wall back where she had ripped it from in such a way that any push on this side would surely send it crashing down towards the other side. Neither she nor Leivinia Birdway cared though as Lessar climbed into the bathtub and fell asleep practically instantly.

Thankfully this meant that she was sprawled over the form that was already inside the bathtub at the time as Kamijou Touma groaned in his sleep, moving what he thought was a blanket over towards his side as Lessar mumbled something in enjoyment, her tail swaying in response with a grin on her face.

Birdway on the other hand, felt her mind go back towards the main reason that she was here as she sat on the edge of the bathtub.

The combined forces that were forming against GREMLIN would be meeting in a few hours in New York however that meant that in Japan, she had the chance to get a few hours' sleep in order to determine a fighting strategy. It was already determined that Imagine Breaker would-

_"If you think that he's alright. Then I have nothing to say on the matter. But, if you really want to get him to be our big brother then, there is only one thing that you have to say. Think of it as 'the expert words of Master Patricia'!"_

….WHAT THE HELL WAS SHE THINKING OF!? She felt as though the hard grip that she formed with her fist was enough to crush the remnants of Buckingham Palace. This was no time to be thinking about something that her sister had said a few days ago.

Now was the time to fight against Othinus and GREMLIN. This was their priority and they had to focus entirely on the goal that they had at hand to make sure that the safety of-

_But, if you really want to get him to be our big brother then, there is only one thing that you have to say. Think of it as 'the expert words of Master Patricia'!_

Birdway stopped and rolled on the floor, gripping her head in order to try and expel what Patricia had said from her mind. Why was it that those words were filling her head right now when it was the worst possible moment!? And why was she, the leader of the Dawn-Coloured Sunlight worrying about them like some sort of hormonal adolescent that was thinking about their crush!?

She ceased rolling and leaned against the side of the bathtub that housed Kamijou Touma and that New Light stripper.

While people mocked her for it, there was definitely a truth to what Mark Space and Patricia Birdway had said about the boy, even if she did not want to admit it and severely beat up Mark over the issue itself. But no matter how much she tried to conceal it, there was a truth there that she definitely had to accept no matter what.

The trouble was though that she did not want to accept it.

The reason was simple; she was the leader of the Dawn-Coloured Sunlight. No matter what, the path that she would carve for herself was for her and her alone. People might follow however even if Birdway was alone, she was sure to carve that way for herself no matter what.

However she had grown somewhat accustomed to having people beside her, people who had the ability and want to share in her goals. In this sense then, she was rarely alone yet at the same time, she had never been questioned up front.

She knew that her goals were something that many people did not agree with however many people that she knew to be neutral or on her side did not speak up against the ideas that she made and held a sense of hatred that was evident to her and the other party if they opposed but were too scared to voice it. She made her decisions, voiced them and dealt with any threat that was in the way.

But if that was the case, then there was something that bothered her. If she truly felt as though she had nothing to do with other people and made her choices regardless of what others thought then-

_"Are you part of GREMLIN!?"_

Those words that had been said by that boy in Hawaii she had felt nothing of at the time as she created the situation in Baggage City for her own ends. However what she had not expected was for that boy to appear in that very same city in order to bring the events there to a resolution even though she had acted in such a way to make him _drop out of the fight before he got seriously hurt_.

Why had she thought that? Was there some kind of wish within her trying to keep that boy from getting injured?

She had been confronted with that idea by Silvia the Saint but now as she questioned it, she too found it strange. She was the leader of the Dawn-Coloured Sunlight so why would she feel attached a simple piece of her plan? Nothing but a pawn? Logically, she would say that she had no reason to feel something towards such a thing and many people would agree with her.

But then, during the Ichihanaransai, he had pointed a drill at the back of her head and Anti-Skill had appeared, seeing the boy pointing the drill and did what they were simply trained to do.

They opened fire.

Yet it was Birdway that had reacted first, trying to get the boy to put down the weapon, even though it was pointed at her, in order to get away and save him own life to prevent misunderstanding. Then she had watched as Kamijou Touma had been shot in the side, blood pouring out of the wound.

In any other situation, she might have watched indifferently as the boy collapsed to the ground however she found herself moving before she knew it, attending to his wounds and also taking his student handbook, operating like a machine however moving with an intensity that wanted to keep the boy alive.

She had been tricked by the information in the handbook and part of her felt as though she would rip the boy's head off in rage, something that she almost had the chance to do when they met again, in front of Fräulein Kreutune.

As they spat words and violence towards each other, it was then that Birdway realised something at the heart of the boy that she knew she should have before.

He merely thought himself as a pawn within his own life, something that could be sacrificed as long as he could make sure that those that he was reaching were allowed those happy smiles.

But in that verbal war, he had pointed out one thing towards Birdway. They were not that different in what they did. This was definitely true in that fact that they wanted to save people however the methods that they used were completely different. Kamijou Touma was willing to cut his own flesh in order to save while Birdway used logic, seeing a situation where the cutting of flesh was needed but she in turn had to oversee with calm rational in order to allow the situation to maximise its utility.

She was unharmed and the boy was bleeding in front of her. They both achieved the same result. They both had the same goal and same result but there was a nagging in the heart of Birdway, who stood unscathed as starving people were fed with pieces of flesh.

Why did she want so badly to reach that dismembered body that had offered itself up as a sacrifice? Why did she want to bring that dismembered body back to life in order to make sure that he could have his own smile?

It didn't make sense. Why was her method being viewed as inferior when it did the same thing as the boy's? If that was the case then logically, a clash of ideals would result in a draw, no….Birdway's win merely because of her power.

Yet she had held back. She had done so and was defeated. Was there a reason for such? Was she accepting, in some part of her that there was a difference between their methods?

Or was it because of something else?

In their verbal clash, they had used the example of starving people and the cutting of flesh, with Birdway standing as capable queen of the masses as she controlled the distribution of such in a cold way in order to save people. She saved people as a result.

Kamijou Touma though offered his own flesh as a sacrifice. Yet he also saved people.

Was it because of that method he had given that meant that he was the one that was suffering even though it allowed Birdway to save people? He had said that he did not want Birdway to become the villain. He wanted to protect her from the malicious eyes of the world and was willing to cut his own flesh to do so.

But,

Did Leivinia Birdway want that? They were the same so it bothered her that someone like her could be so different. Why was it that he assumed it was OK to just sit back and have things taken from him? Why it was OK to stand in front of Birdway and be riddled with holes while she sat back and watched, waiting for him to collapse before she gave a counterattack?

Would she accept that?

The answer was no.

But that was his method, his way of doing things. He wanted to make sure that Birdway was not the villain and that she too was saved.

Was that why she had lost?

Had some aspect of her, even though she had thrown away her pride wanted to be saved and not be thought of as a villain?

Birdway had no answer but what disturbed her even more was the fact that Kamijou did not hate for her actions. Instead, he hated her for what she had done to him through manipulation when it would have been alright to just have him take the firing line from the start. He was angry that she did not use him and she was angry at him for thinking that he was something to be used in Birdway's plan so thoughtlessly.

"Oh."

Was that it?

She was angry at him for thinking that he was expendable.

But they were the same. He had stood to protect her and he had faced his feelings in response to what Birdway had thrown at him. And he had done so at his own pace and accepted Birdway as a result.

And through that acceptance and the fact that they were the same, Birdway had come to see him in a different light to other people.

Because he accepted her after everything he had been through, because they were the same and because he simply wanted to prevent Birdway from being the villain of the world through manipulation when she was the hardest working of everyone, she had grown to think of the boy in a different way than others.

It was because of all of this that she had held back, accepted defeat and moved on from Fräulein Kreutune to where she stood now.

She realised that the boy was different in a subconscious manner and had held back as a result.

But then, if she accepted all of that within herself, then was there a small question that had to be asked?

Did she truly want to be saved by someone who had grown in her eyes?

If that was the case then that meant…..

_But, if you really want to get him to be our big brother then, there is only one thing that you have to say. Think of it as 'the expert words of Master Patricia'!_

She felt as though her face was going red however she slapped herself in the face as she stood up. She moved to the side of the bathtub and saw the empty space that was next to the boy as he lay sleeping as Lessar tried to use his arm as a blanket.

And so, with a hardened heart, Leivinia Birdway got underneath the covers, facing the sleeping face of the boy that had prevented her from making a mistake about who the real enemy was. In a sense, the reason she was somewhat classified as a 'good guy' in the fight against GREMLIN was because of him.

And because of such, she definitely felt as though he was something of a big brother, always ready to listen, support, criticise her for her wrong decisions and move towards making them better behind her back without her knowledge.

It was detestable however at the same time, comforting to know what she had to do, even if she had to do it silently and without anyone's knowledge.

The words of Patricia filled her mind as she looked up towards the face of the spiky haired boy, opening her mouth. There was no shame in what she was doing. She was alone and there was no one to hear her however for everything that he had done and for making Birdway willing to admit defeat, she felt as though he deserved as least this much.

Words that, according to Patricia, would ensure that he became her big brother.

"Because you're my favourite…..Onii-chan."

No one heard her however as she let the blanket fall over her and feel the warmth of Kamijou Touma's chest, she could only feel content with the fact that it was probably only a God that could take him away from her and more importantly….

Her feelings about him.

* * *

**[1] These events recall what happened to Patricia and Leivinia in the SP volume. Here, Patricia was saved by Stiyl who protected her from various forces that were after her life if memory recalls however you can read the details inside it for more.**

**Because Birdway loves her big bro that much! I hope that you liked this one. I showed another rare character in Patricia Birdway so in this extent, I wanted to show how she and Mark were to accept that maybe Birdway sees Touma in a different light than other people. The first part is looking at it from other people's perspective so looking at what Mark and Patricia say in this aspect is important.**

**The second part is then how Birdway feels herself. Taking place between NT 6 and 7 for the first part and a semi-prologue to NT 8 for the second, the second part sort of focuses on how Birdway and Touma's methods are different. Taking this into account and Birdway's pride, there is no way that she would state openly that it was the case however the differences and the fact that Touma would be willing to act as Birdway's pawn in order to protect her before she can act is the catalyst for her thoughts.**

**In this sense, he is protecting her. Also, because they focus on the same goal, she feels as though he is a person that will listen, agree and point out faults and support her in a number of things. Not only are that but the criticisms that he made in NT 6 by punching her in the face important in this sense.**

**Yet the question was "Did Birdway want to become the villain entirely?" Although this is entirely my interpretation, I felt that the answer was 'No'. This is simply because she has her own goals and family and thus, when she realised that Touma was fighting for her and Fräulein Kreutune in NT 6, the realisation that she was doing things wrong filled her, leading to the defeat of Birdway.**

**Thus it was for this that she held back, that Touma would spend the time to analyse her and point out what was wrong in order to try and save her from placing herself in the role of the villain.**

**So what did you think? Personally, ScareCrowFM, I hope that I fulfilled your request. Having Birdway accept her big bro was something of a challenge given her arrogance and character however I felt as though if it was only her then maybe it would be alright. What did you guys think?**

**As this story is request driven, as you can clearly see from the last two chapters, I hope to deal with any requests that one might have. Of course, I will try and deal with all of them so if you have one, then keep them coming and I will attempt to have a crack at them.**

**I hope that you enjoyed this small one-shot though.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**Although what ever happened to Mark? I couldn't really give details on Birdway's revenge on him. It really, really was that bad.**


	7. The Maiden's Determination

**Exams are over for me and despite the train wreck that I feel they were, I can back to this now. Well we have NT 13 to look forward to in July and a Final Fantasy 7 remake so I guess everything sort of balances out right?**

**First and foremost, for those that have requested a certain one-shot keep in mind that those that requested before you take priority and then I'll eventually deal with someone else. Also keep in mind that if you have multiple ideas, I'll want to try and deal with those that have asked for their idea for the first time.**

**But moving on.**

**In a rare move for me, I actually started writing this in the day immediately after when I finished the last Between the Lines and when I was thinking about whom to write in the next arc for A Certain Unknown Level 0. For the character requests, it's hard to bring things altogether because of the fact that there is so much to write there.**

**Connections such as looking at Touma's life can't really be solved in just one chapter from what I have found for myself and thus there is the long arcs focusing on the character. But that is just for me.**

**But I'm digressing, this is all about Between the Lines! As I try and focus on the story here, we can say that this is something that happens for people outside our gaze. In this sense, it's unlikely that we'll get fight scenes unless I do another part of 'The Endless Hell' series (yes I can do that as with anyone of the ideas that are here). So if you want to see more character focus on a separate area yet with the same core idea, just ask for that as well.**

**But for now, it is time for me to fulfil another request (something that is easier to do because of the fact that these are one-shots instead of full blown out arcs). This one was suggested by Otaku97 who asked:**

Itsuwa please

I seldom see any mention of her in a certain series related stuff

Her character is so nicely designed as one can see from the coloured illustration in vol 14 and then there is a personality and her involvement in fighting Acqua

So with all my heart

Itsuwa please

**Apparently you wanted Itsuwa as the person to be featured in this one-shot so I'll do my best Of course I doubt that there will be a fight scene (probably and definitely not) but I hope to reveal perhaps something along the lines about her that will tug at the heartstrings. This is what I'm going for, yes it is.**

**But before I begin, I'd like to thank once again the two major people for this project.**

**The first is PokeRescue18. I think you all have an idea of the contribution that he puts in and I can't thank him enough. Especially when he's just recovered from a cold. I've done so in so many ways but really I want to thank him for his work in this despite the fact that we both have our own lives to deal with.**

**And I'd like to thank you, the reader. Primarily, you too have your own lives to deal with and whatever age you are, gender or the like, you chose to click on this link and read this chapter. No one asked you to so in this sense, if you read totally from here to the bottom, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.**

**But enough of this introduction.**

**This is where the story begins!**

**Enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark**

* * *

A Driving Force No One Expected. _Normal_Magical_Persistence._

When one looked past an outer shell that many girls gave, the inner most working of a girl's heart was most commonly found in their room.

There was a common thought that if one wanted to understand someone and their personality, one needed to look at their bookshelf. Their tastes, organisational skills and commitment towards an author could be seen from such and in turn, one could draw certain characteristics from such a thing.

Yet at the same time, one could do the same for posters.

This of course could be seen and probably stereotypically applied towards girls if Hollywood was any reference where girls had a number of posters of boy bands and movie stars showing their hot and six-pack bodies on a piece of paper. Fireman calendars and men in uniform calendars were a similar idea in this sense.

These things then came to a certain conclusion about some girls (however not all) that there was an attraction of these girls towards the figures that were plastered over their walls or calendars.

While it was something that might seem ridiculous and pointless, to those that were engaging in such behaviour, it was surely a mark of something that had worth.

That small attraction was something that was going to escalate into something bigger, they hoped, towards someone that was more real and inspiring; to such an extent that they felt as though such a person would surely change their life. The moment that that came, the posters would come down and the girls would spend their days not gazing into the eyes of idols but rather into the log of texts that they had in their phone with that person.

Itsuwa of the Amakusa Church had no posters on her wall of her apartment complex in London and she was into gazing into her phone either.

Instead she was gazing at the magazine that was in front of her, blushing mildly as she looked at the horoscope page of the magazine itself in the break room of the bento shop where she worked at.

By all accounts, Itsuwa was nothing more than an ordinary girl however there was a distinguishing factor that separated her from other girls that she passed down the street without a care.

And that was simply because she possessed the heart of a maiden in love.

Being a magician in the Amakusa Church, one thing that Itsuwa recognised was the fact that there was a link between small actions and the amount of magical power that they accumulated. The simpler the action however the more magically significant it was also meant that the more power it built up.

Yet there was nothing in regards to 'building up love points' in the field of magic. Even the genies in a bottle of legends noted that the genie could not make someone fall in love with someone else. Succubus themselves were said to be rooted in lustful feelings however the fact that love was one of the rare things that had to be built up naturally in this world showed just how much power it had.

But this in turn meant that there was a severe obstacle for the girl in love as she looked at the magazine with a faint blush.

She felt as though she needed as much help as she could get yet at the same time, the statement of the horoscope in front of her meant that there was very little that she could do in order to calm her racing heart.

_'Keep that which you desire in your sight! Whether it be in love or simply something that you wish to grab, focus on it entirely! Your fortune means that the closer you link yourself with such will make you more likely to grab it!'_

Itsuwa felt as though her confidence had increased tenfold however there was the massive problem that separated both her and the boy that she wished to be with.

And that was simply distance.

She was in London. He was in Japan. It was a star-crossed fantasy that could never work out however the statement in the magazine in front of her gave her the hope that she had been previously lacking. But with that distance, was there anything that she could do in order to allow herself to get closer toward that boy who she was separated from!?

She wanted to get closer towards him, feel what he felt and be a part of his life however there was a limited chance of that. After all, with everything that he had done with the coup d'état in Britain, World War Three and the recently-solved-problem of Radiosonde Castle, everything was in complete chaos regarding Itsuwa's thoughts.

What she had previously thought about the dead boy was overturned in an instant meaning that her entire thought process towards working was completely shot. Yet she needed to do something in order to gain her peace of mind however no matter what she did, that boy's face would always appear in the back of her mind.

While serving a customer, his face had appeared and she had mixed up the orders.

While working the register, his face had appeared and she had accidently mischarged a customer.

While cleaning the tables, his face had appeared and she had spilt detergent all over the table itself.

It wasn't exactly misfortune but more clumsiness as Itsuwa felt her concentration seep away as she tried to focus however it was entirely impossible. Thus, in a break that was practically begged to be taken, she had taken a look at the magazine, leading to her current thoughts.

So how could she begin to get closer towards him? She could always send text messages of her in different maid outfits, in order to counter the strategy that was given by the Priestess Kanzaki Kaori and following the suggestion of the Substitute Supreme Pontiff Tatemiya Saiji however the thought of doing so made her face go entirely red.

Besides, if she did that, she had the feeling that either the boy would get arrested or merely suffer punishment at the hands of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Or both. At the same time.

The consequences were endless however a tugging at the back of Itsuwa's mind made her turn towards her laptop, boot it up and open up her Internet history, turning towards an article that she had been looking up before the boy of her affections had made his way into London; before British Halloween.

The Japanese text that she looked at along with the magazine horoscope caused the gears in her mind to go into overload as she stared at the words.

["The key to success in a long-distance relationship is to remain in the mind of your partner! Those who are as shallow as a shadow will break off the relationship!? Those who succeed and those who fail will be separated!"]

W-Was this the method that she had to use? The horoscope had said that the more she connected with that which she desired then the more likely the chance she was to get it. This evidence was further corroborated by this phase of the article she was looking at; she needed to get into the mind of the boy of her affections in order to grow closer.

Taking them into account, only one thing filled the mind of Itsuwa from the Amakusa Church.

She needed to place herself in the mind of the boy for at least a day. If she were to do that, then she would surely manage to get closer to him and gain the one-up advantage over the Priestess through connection!

With her mind set, she clenched her fists yet blinked inside the break room and realised something herself.

(E-Eh? H-How do I get into his mind? This is my own tactic so I don't want to call Tatemiya-sama and the others about it. I want to move forward myself so how do I do that? What does 'he' think of?)

Given the fact that he was a normal high school boy and what Itsuwa herself had seen when she had stayed over with the Acqua of the Back incident, it seemed as though the one and only thing that seemed to dominate his mind at least 8 hours of the day was…

(M-Misfortune? If I want to experience 'his' mind to get closer, then I have to experience misfortune!?)

They said that love was tough however the thought that came to Itsuwa was something that seemed to suggest that her love interest's life was something that was perhaps tough as well.

Not that she needed anyone else to tell her that. After all, given the chaos of the coup d'état, he had hitch hiked to Russia, participated on the front lines of World War III, defeated Fiamma of the Right, saved the world, defeated an Archangel and then fallen into the Arctic Ocean and survived. He had survived all of that so what was next!? Was he going to identify the leader of GREMLIN next and fight her, and then fight the entire world!? It seemed unlikely but the possibility was there!

"Itsuwa! Break's over!"

Itsuwa shakily stood up as the idea crossed her mind as she clenched a hand near her heart. What was she to do? She didn't want to harm anyone, that she was sure was something that was inside the boy's mind, however at the same time, she truly wanted to get closer towards him.

She might be nothing but a normal magician but she truly wanted to bridge that gap. That was the desire in her heart right now and she planned on following it.

And if she knew something, it was that her own desires were important to her as well as others that wanted to push her towards that same goal. Since that was the case, then it was obvious what she needed to do in order to grasp something that not only she wanted but also what others wanted her to grasp as well.

Yet even though there was that justification Itsuwa felt as though even if she was trying to her best, she was doing this entirely for herself. She had made a vow to not only do the very best that she could but also grasp something within herself as she strove towards that boy who would forever have his back towards her.

That was how far he was in her eyes and even if it was small Itsuwa wanted to close that gap. And there was a method to do so right in front of her to make him closer towards her….no, to make her closer towards him.

And because of such, she held her head up high as she steeled her convictions and charged forward while clenching her right fist.

This was the mark that Itsuwa had given and placed upon herself.

It was the mark of a maiden in love.

* * *

As Itsuwa stood outside the bento shop in the rain, the one thought that filled her head in the aftermath of everything she had done was that she truly wondered how hard the boy's mind was after facing all of that misfortune.

Itsuwa had tried to experience and place herself in situations of misfortune in order to gain a knowledge of the mind of the boy yet in those 3 hours of doing so, she had almost lost it entirely, given up and went upstairs and cried in her room.

She felt a great deal of respect and at the same time felt ashamed. Every time he had been in a problem, it was as if she and the others in that same problem itself had placed the role of doing something onto the boy regardless of what he had been suffering.

And now that Itsuwa had seen what the boy had faced on a daily basis, she felt as though she wanted to stay inside for the rest of her life. And she had sought misfortune intentionally. As a result, although she felt she had gotten closer towards the boy in her own way, there was a small wish that someone would hug that boy and let him vent out the frustration that Itsuwa herself was feeling now.

So, let's how a look at how Itsuwa, the maiden of the Amakusa Church, decided to get closer towards the boy of her dreams by experiencing misfortune?

It of course had started normally, with another customer coming into the bento shop and ordering. He had sat at a table and Itsuwa had brought him his meal however as she held the bottle of mineral water, she recalled that many a waitress were to slip in a situation like this.

She tried to do so, or at least trip slightly, however gripped the water bottle too hard, causing the top to burst off and spray her with water. Itsuwa had cried out, fallen backwards and hit her head on the tile floor, meaning that her clothes were drenched, her head was aching and had to serve the customer anyway.

Of course the rest of the Amakusa that had been living upstairs went to check on her and upon seeing that their lovely Itsuwa-chan was wounded, made her sit back and relax. She chose not to do so they made the girl attempt to fix one of the broken lights inside the store.

As she had stepped on the ladder, her wet feet meant that she had slipped, stumbling up the ladder in the process where her forehead smashed against the light. It had broken entirely and sent a surge of electricity through the girl's body as she proceeded to fall down the ladder and smashed her head on the tile floor again.

By this time she was visibly shaking however in her heart, she had realised that this was something that was faced everyday by the boy that she so admired.

She had to endure!

The Amakusa had tried to get her to sit down however Itsuwa had moved over towards the kitchen in order to at least do something that meant that she did not hit her head as she proceeded to chop up some sushi and vegetables to put into the bento products.

Her nervousness towards trying to avoid a situation here meant that she gripped the knife too hard to which it slipped out of her grip. It flew through the air and expertly sliced through the rice cooker's wires, causing the entire thing to burst into flames.

Itsuwa had run to get the fire extinguisher and when she did she ran towards the sight of the hazard, slipping due to not having dried completely as she hit her head on the tile floor once again as the fire extinguisher went off, spraying her and the rice cooker entirely.

As she was lectured by the owner, she was asked to take out the trash in order to prevent any incidents, however as she did so, the pieces of fish that had covered her when she fell caused numerous feral cats to attack her and rip her clothes in numerous places as she had screamed and covered her body, shaking and blushing due to the parts of her skin that were visible.

Not only that but when running away from the cats, she had slipped and fell inside the rubbish bin. Overall she came out of the experience wet, dirty and showing cleavage that, given her shy personality, meant that she had squatted when walking unto the store to prevent people from staring.

And finally, to top it all off, went she had had a shower, using shampoo to get the smell out of her, she had gotten some of it in her eyes, underestimating her power as a magician as she accidentally unleashed a water spell that caused the entire shower to shatter in an explosion of glass as Itsuwa fell naked onto the ground, eyes still burning from the shampoo and still smelling terrible.

Needless to say, the other members of the Amakusa was wondering what the hell was going on as she refused to divulge the reason why she was causing the shop to have a decrease in profits due to a loss of sales because of a broken rice cooker. Or was it an increase in sales as people went to take pictures of a crying girl with skin showing where cats had ripped her clothes?

Itsuwa though had been asked to get some more supplies in the rainy London streets however stood in a daze in front of the bento shop.

She had realised it. She had realised that the stance of the boy was one of misfortune however it was to this extent!? She felt like crying as she rubbed her sore eyes as she made her way through the streets. No, from what she had heard, it was something that was definitely worse than this if WWIII was any indication.

Yet at the same time, as she considered what she had faced (something that she had done intentionally in receiving punishment), she felt a blush rise to her face as she looked up towards the rain that was coming from the sky.

She truly felt as though she was unlucky and that the world was against her for what had happened to her.

But at the same time, hadn't that boy received tenfold? Itsuwa had tried it for 3 hours but that boy had done it for around 16 years. He had faced what had been given to him, suffered endlessly and yet, he still chose to rush into situations in order to try and make a difference and ensure that there was a smile on someone's face.

He didn't want to see anyone hurt because of him, seen when he had pushed Itsuwa out of the way to take on Acqua of the Back full force.

Given all his misfortune, he had still wanted that. Looking at that and the fact that he simply wanted people to be happy despite what he faced, Itsuwa had the strange feeling that looking at his misfortune had allowed her to look into the mind of the boy she adored but at the same fact, increased the gap that was between her and him.

If she had been in the same place as him, would she have made the same decision? She didn't know as right now as she simply wanted to sit back and not take any more misfortune.

"Hah….." Itsuwa sighed as she looked in the air. "What am I doing? Am I really getting closer towards him?" she asked no one in particular as she continued walking.

She had accepted her feelings. She knew what they were. She knew the sensation that filled her when the boy that she admired smiled at her or when he had gone off alone to save the Index during the coup d'état. She had felt his pain when his dear friend was controlled by Fiamma of the Right and had been destroyed when she had heard that he had 'died'.

She had put all of her thoughts into work however she could not deny the heart wrenching force that had threatened to tear her apart when she had finally accepted the information for what it was.

And then she had been elated to hear that he had actually survived. She wanted to jump for joy and be somewhere alone so that she could squirm with happiness.

She understood what she had yet what was she doing about it? In order to make the long-distance (one-sided) relationship work, she had tried to get an insight into him because of what a horoscope said. But all she had actually done was merely make the boy seem further away from her than she had thought before.

If anything, and this was something that Itsuwa herself was embarrassed to admit, it only added towards the reasons for her love.

She stopped walking, looking both ways on the street that she was on, seeing a car approach on one side as people yelled and jumped out of the way despite the fact that it was coming in the opposite direction. Itsuwa frowned at what the Londoners were doing as some of them shouted out towards her as she tilted her head, looking at the car.

Only then did she see the large puddle that had formed on the curb.

Of course it had been much too late as the car moved through the puddle, spraying water all over Itsuwa, leaving her sopping wet despite the umbrella. She blinked once before falling to her knees, dropping her umbrella as there was no sense keeping it on her now that she was in such a state.

W-Was this the reality of the boy? She could hardly stand it herself so she truly wondered how in the world the boy was managing to do so himself.

People watched with pity towards Itsuwa as she picked herself up, sniffling slightly, as she crossed the road trying to dry off by walking however doing very little given the weather.

Still, was this the only way that she could reach close towards the boy? Surely there must be another way! According to that horoscope, if she achieved such then the chances of her getting higher than the Priestess towards claiming the boy were-!

She stopped as a sound filled the air, a sound that made the girl prick her ears and looked around herself for the source of the sound, looking until she found it in an alleyway that was almost in front of her as people walked past the alleyway and the source of the sound.

Itsuwa though looked towards the source and felt something turn within her.

Perhaps…perhaps there was another way for her to get closer towards the boy rather than facing misfortune! She might not be as decisive as others however when it came towards trying to understand the boy, she wanted a way to understand even a part of him. To close the gap rather than increase it.

And what she found in front of her was something that allowed her to do so.

To do what he did so very well.

To reach out to those suffering and relieve them of such.

She walked towards the alleyway as she found the small boy trying his best to cover his eyes as he cried in the rain, just as wet as Itsuwa was, however the attempt made a muffled sound come from his mouth as a result.

It was in the afternoon, so people were still working however as people seemed to pass by the alleyway, they did so with a quickened pace before they slowed down after leaving the view of the alleyway, some turning back with a regretful look on their face and others not even doing so.

Not Itsuwa though as she bent down and approached the boy, putting the umbrella over his head as he looked up towards her with teary eyes that were mixed with the rain.

"Hey there." she said in a gentle tone. Her time in London had made her English extremely fluent and well pronounced. "What's wrong?"

"I-I…." said the boy with a sniffling voice as he seemed to shy away from her. "Mummy told me to not speak to strangers." The boy said in a soft voice as Itsuwa let out a strained smile in response.

The boy's mother had sense so if he truly was focusing upon his mother's words entirely then it was going to be hard to help the boy. However she merely sat down in the mud of the alleyway and made sure that the umbrella covered them both.

"Is that so? Well my name is Itsuwa. It's Japanese if you were wondering."

"J-Japan!? Does that mean that you know of Academy City?" The boy's expression seemed to fade away instantly as he looked chirpier towards her and almost sat up in response before realising that he had opened up entirely and reverted back to his shy personality.

Itsuwa let out a light laugh as she nodded. "I know of a few people there. Do you want to have an esper power?" she asked.

The boy seemed to nod frantically in response as he looked towards Itsuwa. "You bet! If I did I would-" Once again he noticed that he was talking to a stranger as Itsuwa lifted a finger.

"How about this then? What's your name?"

"Charlie." he replied to which Itsuwa extended a palm towards him.

"So Charlie, since we both know each other's names does that make us strangers?" she asked to which Charlie seemed to understand her plan as he shook his head as Itsuwa stood up, lifting up Charlie in the process as they got to their feet.

"So what are you doing here in this alleyway? I don't think it's such a place for someone that wants to be an Academy City esper." replied Itsuwa as Charlie seemed to look at the ground with a downcast expression as he mumbled something, Itsuwa kneeling down so that she could hear him better.

"I lost my mum….." he said with a sniffle as Itsuwa indicated towards the entrance to the alleyway.

"Well how about we got out of this alleyway? Your mum will have a hard time finding you in here." she said as she offered her hand, Charlie looking at it hesitantly before taking it and the two of them stepped out of the alleyway as they looked around each other.

"Do you know where she might be?" asked Itsuwa to which Charlie shook his head.

"No. So I can't seem to find her. I just want to-"

"That's fine. I mean the only thing that we can do is walk around until we find her right? There's a police station just around the corner. I'll take you there." said Itsuwa as she led the boy in the direction of the station as she turned towards him.

"You must be new around here right? A-After all, you got lost like you did…." She tried to be careful with her words and Charlie merely nodded his head.

"We only moved here last week. Mummy said that she was going shopping but I saw one of those Japanese stores and went to have a look and then I got lost and then you found me." said Charlie with a pained expression on his face as Itsuwa smiled.

"You must really like Japan."

"I do! After all, they have espers! There was that sports carnival in September, the Dai…..Dai….Dai-something-or-rather!" said Charlie with a joyous expression on his face as Itsuwa blinked once and gave a small chuckle.

"The Daihaseisai?"

"That's the one! Those espers were so cool! I liked that guts guy the best! He was funny! Oh, and that-" Charlie spoke with enthusiasm as Itsuwa listened, remembering the directions to the police station as they turned a corner and saw the sign for it in the distance as the both of them walked.

"-about you?" asked Charlie.

"Pardon?"

"What about you? You're Japanese right? Do you like Japan even though you live here? Have you been to Academy City?" he asked her to which she nodded, pointing towards the way that they just came.

"I work in a store down that street there. We make lots of Japanese goods if you want to come over and try them out." she offered with a smile.

"C-Can I really!? Oh, then you can tell me about all your stories in Academy City!" he said with a smile as Itsuwa seemed to sweatdrop. It seemed as though the boy was going off on his own tangents without her input. Before he was shy and now outspoken? Was this how he was with hi-

"CHARLIE!"

A voice coming from the police station in front of them made the boy seem to perk up as he let go of Itsuwa's hand and raced towards the woman that had yelled his name, almost tackling the woman to the ground as he wept into her dress, the woman not caring that she was getting wet herself.

Itsuwa stopped and looked at the scene in front of her, ready to walk forward and explain what had happened however a part of her pulled her back. She did not know which part however there was an inkling in her mind as she saw the tearful faces of son and mother, covered with snow and rain.

She looked at the both of them, smiled and then turned away from the duo, heading back the way she came in order to find the cheapest shop to buy the goods that she had been tasked to find.

Yet there was something within her mind as she left the family behind with a faint smile on her face.

She had reached out towards Charlie and prevented him from crying. It was not something that went on a resume, not something that made test marks go up or fixed any of your problems. It was just someone taking their time out of their hands to help someone else in need. That was all it was and there was nothing to it.

But it was something that 'he' did so well despite his misfortune. It was something that he did even though he was asked 'why'.

However now that Itsuwa had done something similar of her own degree, there was an understanding of why he did so.

Because just by seeing those smiles and crying faces upon reuniting the family, there had been a twinge of righteousness and pride within Itsuwa. She had created that result and she was proud to say that the reason that she had made Charlie and his mother was happy was because she had brought him to the police station.

There were other factors involved yes however at the same time, Itsuwa definitely felt as though even though it was raining that the sun was shining.

She had managed to makes someone happy and it was due to her that it was possible. She felt proud for having called out and felt proud that she had taken the time to see the incident to a conclusion. It had nothing to do with her but so what? She had managed to help someone. It wasn't the extent of 'save' but she had done so.

She had done this one action and only seeing those faces made her truly think that she didn't need to be thanked. Just seeing them was a reward in and of itself. She felt the smile on her face grow larger as she also realised one thing as she had noted those smiles as she walked away without asking for thanks.

This feeling within her, it was something that the boy that she admired definitely felt upon hearing the results of what he had always done. She did not know the exact nature and feelings of the boy entirely but she was absolutely sure that seeing such a result was what pushed him forward to do this same action.

He wanted to make people happy in order to make sure that they did not suffer even though he did at the same time. He wanted to protect the smiles that ordinary normal people had merely because it was that important to do so.

And that, now that Itsuwa had done so, was something that she completely understood.

"ITSUWAAAAAAAAAA!" A boyish shout from behind her made her turn and see Charlie waving his hand towards her as his mother stood next to him, looking straight at the girl that was sopping wet.

"I'll be sure to visit your shop! So tell me all about Academy City OK?!" asked Charlie in his loudest voice as Itsuwa felt something of a blush of embarrassment fill her face as she nodded and waved. Charlie did the same as his mother followed suite, mouthing two words that Itsuwa did not need but accepted regardless.

"Thank you."

She nodded, turned and continued on her way as she raised her head towards the rainy clouds, feeling that the pitter-patter of rain against the crowd was somewhat soothing against her own heart as it beat within her chest. Among everything that had happened today, she had done something right. She had acted for someone other than herself.

This was what she had wanted the entire time as she let out a laugh from her heart despite being wet, the smile that she was showing causing many a youthful boy that was passing her to blush at how cute it was.

Yet she took no notice as she looked up into the air sighing.

She had tried to be in the mind of the boy she admired for half-a-day, experiencing misfortune to try and allow herself the chance to grab him when the opportunity came. She had done so and that gap had increased however now that she had truly helped someone that she did not know, once again she felt as though the gap had changed.

Except that she had become closer towards the boy that she admired. She had seen him in his natural light and the elation within her heart only made her realise the goodness that had to lie in it in order to think that such things were nothing more than things that any person should do.

But then at the same time, it created one problem as Itsuwa of the Amakusa Church, a maiden in love, looked up towards the sky.

It meant that, once again, the fact that she was shown that goodness, the beating in her heart and the flushing of her cheeks was sure to not fade for a while.

That was the effect that that boy had on her, something that she accepted within herself despite her shy personality.

And it was surely a positive effect.

Because it had caused this change.

A change that Itsuwa was willing to accept with a smile as she rose a hand into the air and seemed to grasp something that was in front of her yet still out of her reach.

"I promise I'll be sure to bridge the gap soon between me and you. I make that promise to myself, but also to you."

She clenched a fist as she held it close to her chest with that blush and smile still on her face.

"I promise."

* * *

**I think that I got the personality right. At least I hope that this was something that you looked at and though that it gave an insight into the girl that always seems to be chasing Touma yet falling behind. Set after NT 2, I gave her somewhat of a push here so I hope that it was well received.**

**But at the same time, I had Itsuwa receive some misfortune for some reason in order to try and understand Touma however it was helping the boy that she never knew, Charlie that truly allowed her that insight towards Touma wanting to help people for that feeling inside of her.**

**Of course there are other reasons that he wants to save people than wanting that satisfying feeling at the end so Itsuwa only got a glimpse towards the fact that 'Touma needs no reason to save someone'. After all, he might feel what Itsuwa did after saving however the reason to jump in to do so is not for that feeling but rather his own personality and creed.**

**Itsuwa touched upon it slightly here but I think that it gave her the look towards the unfortunate life that he leads. In this sense, I hope that I got it right for you Otaku97. Also, for anyone that enjoyed seeing Itsuwa here trying to be more decisive despite her shy personality (in order to obviously get ahead of Kanzaki!) I hope that you saw how Itsuwa might grow due to her change upon meeting Touma.**

**There's no really much to say here as the point of the one-shot was pretty clear. However I suppose I only ask that you keep on reading for this and look forward until next time.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**Naturally, Itsuwa managed to get the groceries misfortune free. In other news, halfway across the world there were reports of large ruckus in Academy City involving a spiky-haired boy, a petrol station's locked bathroom and large amounts of donuts.**


	8. The Problems with Seduction

**And here we are once again with another one!**

**For these stories though the important thing to note is the gap between them and my main project. I suppose that you could say that while ACUL0 focuses on the aspects of Touma's life, BTL really branches out and shows the processes of other characters that are just as important, whether it be the Magic or Science side and things that can possibly happen. **

**One thing to note as well here is that I need to manage to write a one-shot without Touma in it. I suppose that in this sense, this one-shot here will be the one that will start this off. This of course comes from the request from Agent Nine:**

That was a really heart-warming ending :D Do you think you can do a chapter on Lessar some time?

**I'm not too sure whether you mean here in BTL or ACUL0 but I'll start off with doing a Lessar one shot here as you requested before I do so in ACUL0. I hope that you enjoy. Also a note, since it is Lessar, you might have some sexual references inside this one in an environment that she hinted towards in OT 20. Let's see if you can pick it out shall we?**

**Just a note though. **

**And as for Q &amp; A:**

**dragon rider****: The notes last chapter at the end were just something random so don't out much thought into them. And as for some other characters, we'll see however I prioritise those that asked first if you understand where I'm coming from there.**

**Before I begin though I'd like to thank the two people that have managed to reach this far with this project. This is of course firstly, PokeRescue18. In this sense, I want to really thank you for your work here. **

**And the second is you, the reader. Although I have no idea how many people read this and form opinions on such, I want to tell you how much I really appreciate your thoughts, if you provided them, and the fact that you actually chose to read this small thing that I made. **

**Moving on though, let's start shall we?**

**So enjoy. **

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

Another Questionable Middle Schooler. _A_Hidden_Side_To_A_Known_World_

Infiltration.

While it seemed as though the word was thrown around through movies, fiction novels and even fanfictions of all kinds, the word itself was surrounded with a tense atmosphere by those that knew what it signified for those that were conducting the action.

As a word, it was mainly surrounding the occupation of soldier and the military however even then, the world of fiction had caused many males to think that certain actions such as sneaking into a bathroom to take pictures of the contents of a girl's locker room could be termed as 'infiltration'.

"This is seriously a bad idea. How the hell did you get me wrapped us in this?" A person sighed that remark in a lethargic tone towards the person that was standing next to them however said person only grinned and winked back towards the other person.

"Oh come on now, Lancis-chan! I used the word 'infiltration' and then you decided to jump straight in. Did you think that it would be the same as that movie that you were watching?"

"It was a preview! Besides, the adventures of Quenser Barbotage and Heivia Winchell against the world of Objects show just how the lower class can win against the higher ups!"

Despite the fact that she was usually calm about things such as this, when it came towards fans of a series, sometimes there was just no stopping their excitement when it came towards doing things that their favourite protagonists did, even though they knew that it was a world of fiction that they were talking about.

It was either that or Lancis probably felt as though there was some chance that she could fight and win against the leader of the magic cabal that she was a part of; New Light, when she saw the sight of the underdogs fighting those that they could normally never win against.

It was night however the streets that Lancis and her partner stood in were hardly empty. In fact, the streets were teemed were people, mainly in their younger 20s to middle ages as they walked the streets, the scent of alcohol in the air and neon lights flashing in all directions.

This was the district in England that many knew to be the place where, once you entered voluntarily, there was a chance that you would perhaps lose something that most people thought was sacred to oneself.

And that was usually either innocence or virginity.

The pair were standing in Soho, the regarded 'red light district' of England however Lancis's partner did not seem to care that Lancis seemed to be disappointed that when she had said 'infiltration', it was something that had led towards this.

There was perhaps an awfully good reason for this.

"I might not have a clue what you're talking about however how can you not enjoy this?" asked Lancis's partner.

"Lessar. If you can look at the world of Heavy Object and tell me, in what scene Quenser and Heivia dress up in bunny suits, then I will be happy to follow your suggestion!"

Lancis's partner, Lessar, grinned back towards Lancis before realising that she had a job to do, shouting out towards the people that were passing by, holding a sign that suggested that the two of them were 'open to interactive experience with any gender'.

Yes.

This was the major problem Lancis right now. While she might not have the most outgoing personality, it was the person that she had been paired with that truly made her lament choosing to go outside when she could visit the online forums and analyse the preview for the Heavy Object movie that was coming out soon.

That and one other thing.

It was the bunny suits.

Lancis looked down at what she was wearing with a pissed expression, noting the wire mesh stockings and the fluffy tail that wore at the back. The clothes seemed to press tightly against her and while she was not the person with the most outrageous curves, she still felt as though the white bunny suit she was wearing was too tight. She pulled at the fabric nearest to her cleavage and tried to cool off as she tried to wipe her brow however that caused the ears on her head to shift slightly as she fixed them on her head.

She was extremely annoyed for lack of a better word however that was supplemented by the fact that Lessar seemed to be having the time of her life.

She was enthusiastically shouting towards passers-by with the sign above her head, waving her hands in all directions in order to indicate towards the both of them however the clothes that she were wearing, and how well she looked in them, only seemed to annoy Lancis more.

Her suit was pink, and clearly too tight for her but the way that it seemed to accentuate the necessary parts of her seemed to be too much. Her stockings were purposefully ripped on her left leg in order to show more of her thigh and the hole where the tail was supposed to be was replaced with another tail altogether.

The devil's tail that swung back and forth from behind her stuck out of the back of her, giving the impression that Lessar was more than just a normal bunny girl, an impression that Lancis felt held somewhat given what the two of them were here for.

In a word, what they were doing was truly 'infiltration'.

This was for New Light and there were orders and a purpose behind what they were doing right now.

But that didn't mean that Lancis had to like it.

"What are we even doing Lessar? Are you sure that this information is correct?" Lancis asked with maintaining a still smile but watching with cautious eyes the people that were walking past and eyeing the both of them.

"Of course. Bayloupe isn't careless about these things after all. And I'm pretty sure that Floris had a hard time getting the needed information for this. The both of them are resting right about now so it's up to us to get what we need to get to Russia~!" said Lessar as she waved over towards a middle-aged and who looked at the two of them before looking around himself and rushing off.

Lessar pouted at that however was not discouraged as she continued her hunting regime for the people around her, Lancis focusing on the information and the purpose for them being here in order to remember why it was that she was made to do this.

They were for one thing only, to infiltrate a certain airliner pilot's identification.

They were currently in England however the two of them were rather well known; or rather their cabal was rather than the individual members. While they were merely names of paper, the chances of them getting to Russia definitely decreased if they were to fly or get to Russia by normal means.

There was something going on there, something was going to happen in the world's largest shopping mall in Russia and the forces of New Light were determined to get there and ensure that whatever it was that was happening was to be thoroughly investigated.

However in order to do that, and not alert anyone that was currently in that location, they needed to do so through means that hid their presence once they flew to Russia.

Even though there might be nothing there happening in regards to any magical activity, the forces of New Light were not caught up in the fashions of 'maybe' and 'perhaps'. They needed a defence for everything and currently, that defence was surrounding the safe, unmonitored travel towards Russia.

And to do that, they needed transport.

Transport that was owned by a certain airliner pilot that could only be accessed by his identification card and fingerprint.

Hence the presence of both Lancis and Lessar in Soho right now.

"Are you sure that the target is going to be here right now? I heard that the pilots from Kongou Airlines are screened to be protected from this sort of thing." said Lancis towards Lessar.

"I've always wondered, how does one screen for that? Do they put a pilot or soldier in a room full of sexy women and see what happens? Saying it like that makes it sound like the start of an orgy but in all seriousness, how does that even happen?" asked Lessar with a light tone that was clearly not answering the question whatsoever.

Lancis groaned however kept her eye out in the crowd, freezing up instantly as she saw the person that they had identified as their target.

Stephen Grimmond. Pilot of a charter plane, the _Icarus, _and its sole owner. Currently an employee of Kongou Airlines and serves in the company as a private airliner in order to transport VIPs over the globe.

And married.

Unhappily it seemed from his presence in Soho right now.

Lancis felt a smile crawl up her lips as she saw and identified the target based on his file alone, the file of the man that had the means and technology to make sure that New Light got transported to Russia, unseen and monitored so that they could enter and infiltrate the world's largest shopping mall to see what was going on.

"Lessar." said Lancis toward the girl as she turned and saw the man that was their target for seduction.

1.9 metres tall, dressed in his pilot's outfit, with brown beard stubble that matched the colour of his eyes. His gait was that of someone that realised his importance as a pilot however at the same time, Lessar cared for none of that. Because right now, Stephen Grimmond was nothing more than just a target to be fooled so that New Light could so their work.

And from what Floris had determined, looking at the hidden Internet searches that the pilot had done on his private laptop, it seemed as though the man's tastes matched exactly what Lessar and Lancis were dressed up as right now.

"Target sighted." said Lessar as she licked her lips and moved towards the left of Lancis as she held up the sign and shouted louder towards the crowds that were passing in front of her.

"Indeed. Although given the naming of his plane, I have a feeling that this mission is going to be-!" **[1]**

Lancis suddenly stopped talking, holding her sides and falling to her knees where she hugged her sides, her mouth crawling into a smile as she let out the worst thing that was possible given the current situation.

A laugh.

"Hee….hee hee."

Lessar froze instantly upon hearing the small chuckle that was coming out of Lancis's mouth, looking with a pale face towards the girl that was holding in the laugh, apparently realising what it was that it meant.

Lancis was not laughing because their target was in sight however doing so because of something that she possessed when she transferred her life force into magic power. Doing so gave her a tickling feeling as was seen however taken in reverse, it also meant that she could sense the presence of other magicians around her through the magic that they were using.

Lancis, as far as Lessar knew was not using magic.

Which only meant one thing.

Somewhere, within close range there was a magician in the streets of Soho, right where Lessar and her target were located.

(Shit! What kind of timing is this!? While Lancis has the ability to sense the magic, if she gets too caught up in that tickling sensation, she's going to be useless in battle!)

Lessar's thoughts went into overdrive as she had her mouth open mid-sentence, looking around herself in order to try and see the magician however there was no use. Lancis was the one with the speciality in this area and she was currently rolling on the floor laughing. Which meant that there was nothing that Lessar could do in that regard.

And that in turn indicated one thing that had to be done.

Lessar opened her mouth-

"Hey you over there! Yes you, you look like you could use fun! How about you come over here and get to know us a bit better hm?" Lessar spoke up seductively towards someone in the crowd and Stephen Grimmond turned towards the two of them, his eyes seeming to sparkle slightly at the sight of the two bunny girls.

He seemed to pause slightly before walking towards Lessar and the giggling Lancis, who suddenly seemed to do so in a louder voice, Lessar giving the girl a quick kick in the side in order to get her to shut up.

While the location of the magician was unknown, it was possible that they had nothing to do with the job that New Light was conducting right now. Even magicians had _those_ kind of needs right?

Stephen approached the two and looked between them, gulping slightly as he seemed to fiddle and take off his wedding ring on his finger and place it into his pocket.

"Hello there ladies."

"Why hello there young sir! How many I help you today? Oh wait, there's actually only one service that we perform so I think that if you are looking for something from us, there is really only one thing that we can give you!" Lessar said her words lightly and with a cheerful tone, showing off her teeth towards the pilot who seemed to frown and put a finger underneath his chin. Lessar angled her body in a way that showed her cleavage as her tail began to swish back and forth with excitement.

"Only…one service?" he asked in a low voice as Lessar grinned, leaning forward again ever so slightly so that the pilot could get a better look at the cleavage that she had so expertly managed to expose using her manipulation of the bunny girl cloth. Her bunny ears brushed up against the pilot's brown hair as she grinned.

"You heard me. But I'm sure that we can think of some ways to turn that service into something customised just. For. You." Lessar let her words out smoothly as Stephen seemed to flinch at the sound of them, shifting in a way that seemed to suggest that he felt right at home.

That was all that Lessar needed to see.

(Right. This identification that we need is going to be in the b-)

That was when she saw him.

A man that was standing behind Stephen, doing so in a professional manner as he watched the two of them with his sunglasses on meaning that Lessar could not tell his expression nor mood towards the New Light duo. His clothes were casual however in such a way that they blended in perfectly with the crowd as people dodged him in the streets of Soho however not paying attention towards the man that they walked around.

In fact, his concealment magic was so good that if Lancis had not been laughing slightly harder as the man walked towards them, then Lessar had the feeling that she would have only realised he was a part of _their world_ when he was right in front of her.

(-last radius of misfortune.)

"What is it there?" asked Stephen as Lessar snapped out of what she was seeing, thinking hard about her next move to seduce. It came quickly as she dropped the sign and grabbed onto Stephen's arm, so that her breasts were against it, as she put on the best pouting face she could.

"There's someone over there that I don't like mister! See? The one in the sunglasses?" said Lessar in her best seductive voice that she could manage.

(This is it! Lessar-chan, you have just outdone yourself! When Bayloupe hears about this, she's going to-)

"Who?" asked Stephen as he turned his head saw the magician that was looking at the two of them before turning back towards Lessar, although gulping at the sensation of her breasts against his arm. "My bodyguard?"

(-give the spanking of a life. Why?! Why would you bring a bodyguard to Soho you damn idiot!? We can't pleasure everybody at once!)

Lessar's insides were raging and she wanted to steal Stephen's identification right now and bail in a bunny suit, dragging Lancis with her however she suppressed the urge and tilted her head so that the bunny ears were in the eyesight of Stephen.

"Oh? Why don't you leave that boring old mister and come with us? I'm not too sure that this _customised _service can be made for two…" Lessar suggested towards Stephen however the man seemed to subtly grin at the suggestion.

"Why not? After all, there are two of you and two of us? I'm sure…that we can think something out." Stephen suggested as he took Lessar's hand as she giggled like a school girl, although she was one.

It was likely that given their presence in Soho, Stephen assumed something about their age. After all, normal middle school girls such as Lessar did not offer themselves up to seedy people such as him meaning that Stephen probably assumed that they were north in their low 20s in terms of age.

Yet despite the very reaction of giggling coming from Lessar, her mind was only thinking a few things as she looked towards the man in front of her.

(Stop thinking about your penis! You're supposed to fall for my charms and not defer me you blockhead!)

"I don't know~." said Lessar playfully as she turned towards her laughing companion. "What do you say there Lancis?" she asked.

"Hee….hee….I-I can't take anymore. This is hee…hee…too much!" cried Lancis with giggles as Lessar suppressed the urge to simply beat up the pilot and escape. Lancis's giggles increased as footsteps approached the two of them, Lessar seeing the sight of the sunglasses-wearing magician approaching them as he looked towards the both of them with a suspicious gaze. Granted, it was justified however the problem was now that faced Lessar was perhaps something greater than she had ever faced.

She was forced to seduce not only a seasoned magician but also a pilot in the same time frame, without any assistance from her useless partner and all the while keeping in mind that she had something to steal at the end of the day.

"Well? What do you ladies say towards some…recreational activity?" asked Stephen as he pulled out his wallet from his pilot's jacket, something catching the eye of Lessar who looked at the inside.

Protected by a plastic film was a small identification card, with the logo of Kongou Airlines on it. Given the fact that he was not currently wearing gloves at the current moment seemed to suggest to Lessar that there was a way to get out of this situation without any chaos happening whatsoever. And if that was the case…

"Oh wow mister! A pilo-pilot's licence?" asked Lessar, keeping her voice down as she pressed herself up against Stephen's arm more as her tail swayed back and forth with enthusiasm upon setting her eyes on the card.

"Huh? Oh this? Ha ha! I worked hard for this little beauty here!" said the man as he reached for the identification card, wearing no gloves, grabbing it and putting it in front of Lessar's eyes that seemed to sparkle upon the sight of her target.

"It's…so beautiful! And to think that someone like this has to come to little old me! Bwa ha ha! I'm telling the rest of the girls about this and I'm sure to become the heroine of my own little corner of this street! This area is claimed as mine, you hear that!?" shouted Lessar as she brought Stephen closer towards her. She pretended to shout towards the others in the street however kept her eyes completely stuck on the identification card in Stephen's hand.

"Sir."

Lessar froze instantly as she looked towards the man that was standing in front of her, the sunglasses wearing magician reaching for something inside his pocket. That one action itself did not mean anything however Lessar tensed and Lancis let out a few more giggles as she sensed and reacted towards the increase in magical energy in the air.

"What is it Hunter?" asked Stephen as he looked towards the bodyguard, the man Hunter, seeming to frown as he watched the tail of Lessar.

"Oh? Do you like this? I know some girls that would be sure to-" started Lessar with a grin however Hunter moved like lightning, grabbing the tail with his free hand and gripping it as hard as he could.

Lessar felt the energy that was poured into her spiritual item of the item and seemed to back away, feigning offence as she swatted Hunter's hands away from the tail itself.

"Hey! What are you doing?! I-"

"Mr. Grimmond. Please step back. These are not your ordinary 'recreation seekers'." said Hunter as he placed a hand in front of his client, Lancis on the ground seeming to let out some more giggles as Lessar stepped back slightly, maintaining the act and keeping in character.

"Recreation seekers? What kind of title is that? Let me tell you that-"

"Hunter, what exactly is going on here? These ladies are just-" Stephen started to speak however Hunter had already moved, bringing his hand out of his pocket.

Lessar immediately reacted upon instinct, pirouetting to the side in her bunny suit as she felt something whiz past her and scratch her cheek, that same thing continuing its linear path and smashing into the side of the taxi that was behind Lessar to the side.

The metal melted in an instant and screams erupted from the occupants that were clearly ready to have car sex as both Stephen and Lessar looked at the small item that was in Hunter's hand, a cigarette lighter with a small symbol on it, that of a circle with a cross below it, the symbol of Venus.

Lessar recognised it instantly and frowned, noting the usage and interpretation of the goddess itself. No, it was more than that. The association was not with the goddess of love and beauty (although for Lessar that basically described herself to a tee) but rather with the astrological meaning of it.

Besides what people thought, even Lessar knew that Venus was the hottest planet, not Mercury which was closer to the Sun. Taking that astrological fact and exaggerating it through a medium that represented heat in itself such as a lighter meant that one could create a focused beam of heat like the man hunter had created.

But that meant nothing right now as Stephen looked in shock and Lessar seemed to sniffle and form tears at the edge of her eyes.

"W-what are you doing mister? T-That really seemed to frighten this poor Lessar!" she cried.

"Hardly, magician. I could feel the power through that spiritual item of that tail. I won't let you do whatever it is that you plan on doing to my client here. I have to earn a living too." said Hunter in a deathly cold tone as Stephen seemed to look between the two of them.

"Magician? What the hell are you blabbering about Hunter? Have you lost your mind? I'll let you know that this young girl has nothing against me!"

"That's right! Why would I hurt this kind mister? I mean he has nothing against me ei-gynaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!?"

Lessar cried out as she felt someone grab her tail and pull her downwards, something that at the exact moment meant that Lessar avoided the beam of intense heat that passed through where she had once been, sailing through the air and striking the taxi that had been pierced before.

It seemed that the occupants, who had been ready to start their car sex anyway, realised that being attacked while engaging in it was perhaps somewhat of a turn off meaning that they fled the vehicle that was burnt beyond repair.

Lessar looked towards the person that had grabbed her tail, seeing that Lancis was on the ground holding it, looking towards her with a serious expression despite the humorous look on her face due to the fact that the tickling sensation continued to fill her.

"Hunter!" shouted Stephen however it seemed as though he was ignored as the man strode over towards the collapsed girls, holding the lighter in front of him without caring about their wellbeing whatsoever.

"No hard feelings about this alright?" he asked.

"Hee…..Lessar….Hee…" said Lancis with a serious expression as Lessar merely sighed, sitting upwards and taking off her bunny ears, looking directly at Stephen.

"You hang on there mister. We'll get down to that customised service within a second~!" stated Lessar with a smile as Hunter moved his thumb in order to begin the flame on the lighter and thus the spell that was associated with such.

But that was all the time that Lessar needed.

In a quick action, she grabbed the ears and took out the blades that were hidden within them, 40cm blades that had been covered with the fur of the bunny ears, spinning and stabbing on the blades into Hunter's leg. They had been dismantled from her Steel Glove beforehand and placed in her ears as a safety precaution and Lessar was personally grateful that she had chosen to take measures in regards to that.

He screamed and tried to light the lighter anyway however Lessar had already stood up within her bunny suit and kneed Hunter between the legs. He let out a girlish squeal as he fell towards his knees, Lessar pulling out the blade and resting it on her shoulder.

"Oh man, look what you did! You ruined the stocking! I paid for this myself! But…I think it does add a lot towards the natural eroticness." complained Lessar with a light-hearted tone as she kicked Hunter in the face, leaving him sprawling on the ground in order to deal with the intense pain that he was feeling.

The crowd around them were frozen as they looked towards Lessar and Stephen who suddenly had no idea what the hell was going on as he fell to his ass trying to crawl away from Lessar as she approached.

"Wh-What do you want?! M-Money? I-I have heaps! Name a price but please don't hurt me!" he cried however Lessar merely sighed and shook her head.

"I was trying to be polite, but I have to ask, did you fall for my eroticness? I tried to do such with the stockings but I think that it was a bit much? What do you think Lancis?" asked Lessar towards her partner as she stopped in front of Stephen.

Now that the magician had been taken out, Lancis had seemed to recover from her giggling fit as she slowly stood up and faced her with a frown on her face.

"Why were you hiding blades in those bunny ears?! I-It's people like you that are more dangerous than Objects!"

"I have no idea what that means but whatever. I'll take what I can get~. And speaking of that…." said Lessar as she turned back towards Stephen, reaching out with one hand as the man seemed to yell in a falsetto voice, as Lessar took the identification card with her gloved hand.

Stephen Grimmond blinked once and frowned at the action as Lessar stuck out a tongue and pulled a seductive pose.

"Please call me again! I'll be happy to supply that service that I promised!" cried Lessar however her attention was drawn towards the sound of sirens that were coming from the end of the street that she was in, Lancis having gotten up.

"Lessar!" she shouted and Lessar turned around in her bunny suit, stepping once more on the place between Hunter's legs as she bent down and picked up the lighter in her hand.

"I'll be taking th-"

She started however stopped as she heard the voice of a policeman fill the air, the man holding his pistol towards her, clearly unsure if what he saw was legitimate; a bunny girl that had to be arrested.

"F-Freeze!" he said, unsure about what to do as Lessar turned towards Lancis who went white in the face as Lessar turned towards him with the lighter in hand, flicking it with her thumb.

The beam of intense heat shot out, past the policeman and hit his patrol vehicle, the entire thing melting after being subject to the beam before the entire thing seemed to travel down the street in a dangerous puddle of liquid that the policeman shouted at when it touched his foot, backing away.

"Lessar!" cried Lancis.

"BAIL!" cried Lessar in her bunny suit as the two of them ran for their lives through the streets of Soho, identification card in hand with Stephen Grimmond's fingerprints of it, ready to be used to fly towards the world's largest shopping mall in Russia.

Lessar heard the sound of more sirens and rotor blades from overhead as she groaned, putting a blade of her Steel Glove inside her mouth as she turned and flicked the lighter once more as the heat beam sailed through numerous neon signs, sending sparks everywhere.

"Hahahaha! Did you think that it would turn out this Lancis?"

"You shut the hell up! I'm going to beat the shit out of you when we get back to base!"

"I have a few of those S&amp;M tools actually that I want to try the effectiveness of. This might be the perfect chance to do so!"

"How are you in middle school if you think about these kinds of things?!"

"Search engines these days are certainly helpful."

Lessar lightly touched her head with a knuckle and stuck out her tongue in a cute pose that made Lancis twitch inside her bunny suit as a response, the rage of her face evident towards her fellow teammate.

Yet any problem that she had had to be deferred simply because of the new objective that had been placed before her and Lessar, the two fugitives in bunny suits that fled the scene.

What were they going to do about the police cars and helicopters that were clearly chasing them?

* * *

"_And here we have a report on the case in Soho. It seems as though the bunny girls that have stolen an energy weapon likely from Academy City have reigned havoc upon the districts of Soho. Currently, police have engaged in pur-Jesus! They fired upon the helicopter! Did you get that!? Did you get that?!"_

Although the reporter looked entirely frightened about what was going on in the streets of Soho, the two people that were watching the report, which was labelled with the caption 'Killer Bunny Girls' had entirely different reactions.

"Bwahahahahaha! Bunnies? I-I can't get enough! Hahahaha!" Floris in her New Light base let out that laugh as next to her, the leader of New Light broke the glass that was in her hand with the pure pressure in her grip.

Bayloupe of New Light only had one thing to say regarding what she saw on the television as she eyed the special order of S&amp;M tools that Lessar had ordered online.

"Lessar. You are so dead."

* * *

**[1] Icarus, in Greek mythology was a boy that had wings of wax in order to fly, made by his father Daedalus however, ignoring his father's warnings, flew too close towards the sun which melted his wax wings and caused him to fall into the sea below. How the naming of a plane like that is obviously an unfortunate thing. **

**Well here we are with a Lessar fiction! Firstly, I want to ask Agent Nine, did I fulfil your request? This is technically a sort of prequel towards the Railgun SS2 where Mikoto goes towards Russia and the world's largest shopping mall where the forces of New Light are already. In the ending of that story, it says that they are on a charter plane so it got me thinking, how exactly did they get it? And that was the birth of this.**

**I always had the feeling as though Lessar was outspoken in regards towards what she chooses to do for her cabal so what better than bunny suits? That and I have somewhat stuck with the 'forgotten girl' theme that I have going here with the use of New Light. **

**So what did you think? While Lessar took the role of the protagonist, I didn't mention Touma at all. However the cameos from Heavy Object (anime forthcoming!) did make an appearance! I hope that that was welcomed and how Lancis truly did not want to have anything to do with this chaos here. **

**But that is all from me. It might seem short but I wrote this in 2 hours so I hope that it pleased anyway. **

**And as always,  
Review if you please**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't. **

**Apart from the infiltration, Lessar got a convenient weapon to fight the police with. How did you like the cigarette heat beam? Although the Killer Bunny Girl that she became seems as though even Lessar had fun with this. Although how did they escape? **


	9. The Dream

**New Testament 13 has been released! My excitement for release is off the charts!**

**Personally, I can't wait however any thoughts that I have on it will probably be released with the next chapter of ACUL0 which might be released around August for those that were wondering given my currently overpacked schedule. I haven't really had the time to write in the past few days however the next arc should be finished by next month so please wait.**

**Before I start with these notes though, I want to apologise to Agent Nine. Given what you were looking for and what I wrote, there was a little bit of a discrepancy. Given that I wanted to make sure that you were happy and I was unable to meet that fully, I'll try and deal with that however not immediately. I will address it though at some stage and fulfil your request properly.**

**However please note that there are some things such as life that need to get done first before I can write!**

**The thing to note about this one one-shot is that it follows no requests. Of course it might seem as though I am diverting from what some people out there want in terms of the story however I am keeping in mind requests and will try and attempt some as soon as possible.**

**I won't say whose request is being met next however the thing is that given the nature of one of the fics on this site, I really had to do something regarding this.**

**The fic is of course referring to the completed 'Never the Twain Shall Meet' by Kyle Castorena, a wonderful fic filled with a wonderful storyline and characters inside. While out of the two major concepts that are developed there (which I shall not disclose for spoiler purposes), I have sort of touched on one of the issues explored there however I guess this is sort of a reference towards the second.**

**Again, I'm trying to not spoil it however I suppose the only thing that you can do is read and I hope that you enjoy what I thought up on the spot that follows the current state of the Railgun manga. While it may be slow pacing for now, the concepts of Indian Poker is something that I felt might be interesting to cover in this way!**

**Before I start though, I'd like to thank three people for this chapter.**

**The first is of course my beta reader, PokeRescue18. While Between the Lines focuses a lot on the different lives of others and A Certain Unknown Level 0 has an underlying plot, the change of pace between the two is something that he has always matched and read regardless. So I really want to thank him for his work on this.**

**The second is of course, you the reader. Without you I doubt that things would have reached this far in terms of the nature of this project, even though it is fairly small and only updated whenever. So I really want to thank you for those that gave me the courage to start this side story sort of thing (although when I post something like a Valentine's Day special on here I get the feeling as though many people will read it).**

**And lastly I would like to thank Kyle Castorena. I doubt that this idea inside my head would have come to fruition without his fiction that he posted and I really wanted to thank him for posting such a great story on this site. Naturally, there are a number of great fics on here however it was Kyle's fic and reading it that gave birth to this one. So thank him guys. And READ HIS WORK! It's quite good.**

**However before I start, I want to note that if you have a request, I won't respond to it in these notes beforehand but rather with address it when I write the chapter. So if you feel I am ignoring you, I'm not really but I want to keep the next request and chapter a secret. So everyone's opinions are held in my head but not outspoken.**

**Apart from that though, from me:**

**Enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

Looking Intently with One's Eyes Closed. _Reality_Division_.

Amidst the bustle of Academy City Saten Ruiko felt as though the clothes that she was wearing did not suit her at all.

Far removed from her normal school uniform, they consisted of a set of blue jeans that she felt were a bit too tight, a green jacket that was covering a white shirt and with boots that seemed to be rather out of the price range for a Level 0 such as herself. Her flower ornament on her head was crooked so she adjusted it however tried her best smile given the situation.

After all, her clothes were not chosen by her, nor did she know where she was at all in specifics however vaguely understood she was in District 7.

That was natural though given that this was nothing but a dream.

That wasn't something that was over exaggerated as her living an entire adventure, only for it to end by her waking up in bed, leaving her raging at the experiences that she had dreamed up that, if written down, would cause the reader to flip a table and burn all the books that her 'dream' extended to.

No, this was something that she had chosen to enter into, a dream that was caused by the Indian Poker.

The principle was simple as Saten put a hand towards her head where in her real sleeping body, a card was currently located on her forehead while she slept, transforming the experience of sleeping into the one that she was facing now.

Still, Saten felt a smile grow on her lips as she looked in the mirror of the shop that was clearly inside District 7. She knew it however the thing that she noticed was the detail of the dream itself.

People walked around, the breeze tickled her hair and a small chill caused her to wrap her jacket over herself a tiny bit more in response to the wind chill. It was a dream that she had never seen so detailed before however that was to be expected given its source.

After all, the Dream Ranker that had come from was apparently the Legendary BLEU, something that Saten knew was a French word for blue.

Saten herself was a hunter for people such as BLEU simply because of the status that they had built up in regards to the community that surrounded the cards that Dream Rankers handed out. Rumours said that BLEU had come into existence in order to rival the existence of BLAU, the Dream Ranker that was said to be the Hero of the adolescent male.

Saten had no idea what that meant however BLEU had been regarded as the opposite, the heroine of the adolescent female. Did it have something to do with BLAU and BLEU being words for blue? Whatever. Regardless, Saten herself had hunted such a Dream Ranker down through the Internet and it had been only through chance that she had come across a website that she rarely visited for urban legends where BLEU was offering a sale.

Unlike BLAU, it turned out that BLEU needed cash for transactions, something that was done in a very clandestine fashion in Saten's opinion.

Firstly, in order to get the card from the A rank Dream Ranker, Saten had to follow the instructions on the website exactly, enclosing cash inside an envelope with her address written on it, something that Saten had gladly done. While it had its risks for being a scam, Saten was not someone that was worried about being in debt anytime soon.

Yet her sense of adventure had kicked in and she had followed the instructions on the website and a few days later, the card had come in the mail. She had enthusiastically opened it however frowned at the curious contents that were inside.

The first was the card. The cards given out by Dream Rankers were coloured based on the type of content they had, usually orange being cards that gave dreams that induced happiness or joy. However the card that had been sent in the mail had been vigorously spray painted on, meaning that its original colour was unlikely to be seen no matter how much Saten scratched at it. She would never do that vigorously for fear of damaging the content however it troubled her that it was the case.

The second was the letter that was enclosed inside. It simply said one thing.

'A continuation of the experience can be received by enclosing an envelope with the same amount of cash labelled 'Part 2' at the same location within 48 hours.'

Saten had no idea what that meant however merely shrugged, her excitement at having the chance to experience a dream by an A rank Dream Ranker causing her to simply enjoy what it was that awaited her in the dream realm.

Which brought her in front of the shop inside District 7 as Saten stood and waited?

There was no reason for such as it was only something that she felt she had to do given the nature of the dream. After all, these dreams usually laid out the foundation of what to do inside it. If you were to dream about being a spy, you would automatically be placed in a mission. If you were learning a language, you would 'wake up' in a conversation with another person.

So as Saten had been placed here from the beginning, she assumed that this was a part of the experience.

What kind, she had no idea however the only thing that gave her an indication towards what kind of experience she was about to face was the 'blurb' that had been present of the website that stated that the dream enclosed was 'the best-selling dream among females of ALL ages in Academy City'.

What that meant in itself, Saten was clueless. However she was adamant and constantly in search of something that allowed her to see another part of the world that Academy City supplied. There was more to it than espers and superficial science that was for sure.

Applications and side effects such as the Indian Poker and urban legends gave her a buzz to learn about so in the face of this mystery, Saten could only feel a smile crawl onto her lips as she waited for something to happen within the dream that disclosed it to be 'the best-selling dream'.

She did not have to wait long.

"S-Saten-san! Sorry! Sorry I'm late!"

Saten turned towards the voice that came towards the side and arched an eyebrow, feeling rather surprised at the figure that was approaching her, dressed rather casually as she was.

They wore a thick jumper that covered their white undershirt however it seemed as though the fabric of the undershirt was something that was known in Academy City for providing a large amount of warmth through the insulation and increase of body heat. They wore casual slacks, almost too short for the kind of weather inside the dream.

The person in front of Sateen was an ordinary person, one that Saten had little interaction with however found it strange that they were talking to her now. Given that this was a dream with a fixed content, the person that was talking to her was something that was simulated, part of the content.

Still why was that the case?

Why was this person the focus of, or at least a part of, the dream that was 'the best-selling dream among females of ALL ages in Academy City?'

"K-Kamijou-san?"

Kamijou Touma panted heavily in front of her, sweat running down his face in almost life like detail as he held a finger up in order to try and tell Saten that he would address her after catching his breath.

"What are you doing here?"

The boy, Kamijou Touma was someone that Saten Ruiko had only met once, during the Daihaseisai, on the second day. Currently, it was the fifth day (or night) and now that Saten had the chance to break from the City's sport festival, she had chosen to use her Dream Ranker. So why was it focused on him?

"What!? A-Aren't you the one that asked me to come here? You said that you needed some heavy lifting done and you gave me call to come and help you. Don't tell me you forgot?" he said as Saten seemed to blink once, recoiling slightly at the words that the spiky haired boy was giving her.

Wait.

She had called him? _She _had called _him_?

She turned and looked towards the reflection, almost gagging as she looked at what she was wearing in context.

The jeans that seemed to tight made her feel uncomfortable however seemed to shape her legs and thighs in a way that Saten found rather appealing and showed some of her more feminine charms despite her age. The combination of both the jacket and shirt provided a bit too much heat than Saten would have liked meaning that she had the intense urge to at least take the jacket off as she could tell that she was sweating slightly.

Not to mention her shoes. They seemed…too posh, as if someone had gone towards the effort towards making her look her best. Now that Saten looked closer, there were definitely signs of makeup of a fashionable brand on her face, something that she rarely wore because of its price.

Yet here it was and the dressed up person that was Saten Ruiko had appeared in front of the shop window with a boy next to her that she had called. That she had called and gone out to wearing this.

There was no other explanation….

This….

Was Saten Ruiko's first date.

"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Saten let out a scream on instinct upon having something that she had been saving for herself taken without her permission through a medium that she hardly expected. Even though it was a dream and people thought it did not count, Saten Ruiko felt somewhat violated in the sense that her first date had to be experienced in this fashion without any regards to what she felt.

"S-Saten-san!?" Kamijou exclaimed however Saten turned towards him, holding her jacket towards her body in order to try and protect it from the boy that was the centre of the dream.

"You….You PERVERT! Lolicon creep! Take this!"

"Huh? Lolicon?! You're the one that-gyhyhyhh!?"

Kamijou's feet left the ground as Saten slapped him in the face, causing the boy to fall to the ground and land face up near a girl that was wearing a skirt too short for the weather as Kamijou got a good look at what was between her legs.

The girl let out a scream and held her skirt closer towards her, stomping on the boy's face repeatedly as Saten fled the scene of the assault, slight tears in her eyes that she wiped away as she raced away.

What in the world was this experience?! While there were always rumours and urban legends that were out there in Academy City, Saten felt foolish for having thought that there no such experiences such as this on the market. She had never come across them before so she had thought nothing of it however the loss of her naivety in that sense was something that made her blush with embarrassment.

She had no idea what was so great about the boy that she had left on the side of the road however he was being likely unwilling used for a dream date simulator that had been regarded as a 'best seller'.

From what she could tell of him it seemed unlikely that he would do this sort of thing voluntarily but sometimes one's desperation meant that one was likely willing to do anything for perhaps a small amount of cash.

Kamijou Touma then, was scum.

That thought filled her brain, repeating itself over and over again in order to make sure that Saten never forgot it.

She stopped running, panting lightly as she felt the sweat cause her shirt to stick towards her skin however she did not take off the jacket inside the dream. What was this experience?! It was nothing but a nightmare.

(No….Calm down Ruiko! Calm down!)

Saten thought that as she slowly breathed in and out, relaxing her mind and collecting her thoughts. This was a dream, something that she had willingly purchased in order to follow something or a legend within the Dream Ranker community. She had entered the dream and run away from the commencement of this 'fake date' before it had started.

The thievery of something that she had wanted to maintain until she met the right person had been taken in an instant as Saten felt a rage come within her. Still she shook her head and analysed the situation.

Kamijou Touma, the centre of the dream, was the core. If anything were to happen in this dream, it would be through a joint interaction with him. If she wanted to at least make this dream something that was worth it, it needed to be done with Kamijou.

Saten felt as though she had no choice however turned and looked at the immense detail of the dream, even noting how people were staring at her, people that seemed to have intricate detail etched on their faces. Were they modelled on real people or were they a fragment of her own mind placing faces upon 'models' of the dream?

If the latter was the case then they were (what had that dream movie called it….) projections right?

Saten had little idea on the complexities behind such but she knew that this experience would be wasted if she did not interact with it.

Regardless of the…intention of the dream, Saten slowly exhaled and slapped her face with both her hands.

"Saten Ruiko! This is not a date and this is something that you wanted to join of your own free will! This is not a date so there is nothing wrong with hanging out with him! Nothing wrong!" Saten said those words and to an extent she believed them.

Even though this was her first date (it wasn't a date she reminded herself), this was nothing more than a dream. In this sense, it was like practice. Doing previous exam papers were not the real thing, only practice, however added towards trying to fulfil objective of passing the true exam.

When she thought of it like that, there was nothing wrong with trying to experience this dream that was from an A rank Dream Ranker.

Saten Ruiko was not a quitter and she did not merely skip out on things while they were half done. She wanted to finish this and bring it to the end in order to come towards a proper judgment about the nature of the dream and the card that she had purchased!

She had her own values and wanted to follow them to the end.

Kamijou Touma though, given his involvement in this dream date (It wasn't a date!), was still scum. Her impression off him had dropped drastically however even he had his faults and no one was perfect.

She sighed, looking back the way that she had come from, breaking into a run as she headed back where she had come from, coming towards the place where she had left the boy wounded, stopping and looking in surprise at the scene in front of her.

"Hey! There she is! Saten-san! You're the one that did this so at least help me out hereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Kamijou Touma struggled as he was being dragged by Anti-Skill members towards the Anti-Skill van, kicking and screaming as the numerous members of Anti-Skill that were trying to hold him looked towards the girl. Kamijou looked at Saten with expectation in his eyes even though there was a red handprint on his face where she had struck him.

The Anti-Skill members talked to her, informing her of the situation which comprised of Kamijou having being arrested for sexual harassment. Saten understood the situation immediately, it had been her fault after all, and managed to convince the Anti-Skill members of Kamijou's innocence which resulted in Kamijou being released from custody.

Naturally, in real life it would not have been that easy however the progression of the dream and the focus that was Kamijou Touma meant that there were probably certain measures that were in place in order to make sure that nothing happened to him that would sever the connection to the dreamer.

Anti-Skill gave Kamijou a warning and drove off, Kamijou looking towards Saten with a thankful expression in his eyes.

"Thanks there Saten-san. You got me out of a real spot of trouble there. Although you did put me into it, I suppose this sort of balances things out right?" he asked with a cheerful grin however it was clear on his expression that he was annoyed at having been almost arrested by Anti-Skill.

"Y-Yeah." Saten said, unsure how to approach this 'date' that she was to go on. What was there that she had to do? How exactly did these things sort of progress?

"Well? What exactly did you want me to lift? I have no idea what you meant by calling me a lolicon and slapping me in the face but whatever was the cause, it has to be something on your mind. Are you alright to be looking for whatever it is that you want me to carry?" Kamijou asked her in a concerned tone as Saten raised an eyebrow.

Questions filled her mind in regards to the nature of the dream, firstly that of the core itself; Kamijou Touma. If the people around her were merely 'moulds' that had a face put on them due to Saten's mind, then why was this boy unaffected? She knew very little about him however it was him that she was interacting with. On what was his personality based on? Was this Kamijou Touma formed by her interpretation of him or on the real Kamijou Touma?

Rhetorical questions were getting her nowhere though and she decided to get right to the point.

"What are you based on?" she asked as she tilted her head, genuinely curious not only because of the processes but also because of the fact that knowing such could perhaps cause Saten to create her own Indian Poker card and become a Dream Ranker herself in order to earn some extra cash. "Are you based on my own mind?"

"Ah, no. I'm a collage of sorts there Saten-san. Fragments and observations of 'Kamijou Touma' have been collected and put together in order to create 'me', something that have been placed inside this space created through the Indian Poker card and moulded by your mind. This is your dream now Saten-san, meaning that it is customised to you and you only. I'm just a part of it. You wanted a service by BLEU and this is what you get. Impressive for an A rank Dream Ranker right? There are some limits though."

'Kamijou Touma' spoke, the complete honesty in which he did so completely throwing Saten off guard. The person in front of her was someone that was only created through observation of the boy known as Kamijou Touma meaning that he likely had no voluntary part in his presence in this Dream Ranker card.

That was somewhat an aspect of some severe misfortune as the boy was being used as a 'simulated date target' without his knowing it however even though that was the case; Saten felt it strange that 'Kamijou' would be so honest.

"A-Are you sure you can say that? Isn't that like an ultimate secret for a Dream Ranker?" asked Saten.

"Yes however the answer that was given was something that was 'Kamijou Touma' would have given. He is reported to be a painfully honest individual when it comes towards serious things such as this." replied 'Kamijou' as Saten felt as though she had stepped in some area of the business of Dream Ranker cards that she should not have.

Still, it was BLEU's loss that Saten Ruiko had chosen to buy such a card! This information was hers and hers alone!

"But basically, this experience is simulated for me and me entirely? I can do whatever I want with 'Kamijou Touma'?" asked Saten to which boy nodded.

"With some limits though." He replied. "I assume that all questions regarding the nature of the dream have been asked?"

"Huh? I-I guess." said Saten, not understanding what was being asked of her as the boy in front of her stumbled, blinking once before looking around him as if he had been lost for a long time and only realised where it was that he stood.

"H-Huh? What…what happened? I asked you whether you were alright and then all of a sudden…?" The confusion on 'Kamijou Touma's' face was genuine as Saten realised what had happened.

As soon as she had questioned the dream, the 'interface' of the dream had communicated with her through the boy in front of her, something that was created through analysing and observing the experiences and personality of the boy in real life. Naturally, as soon as her questions had stopped, the interface had disappeared and the personality of 'Kamijou' had returned, resulting in his confusion.

However while there were a number of things Saten had to ask, this was a dream that was simulated in order to 'enjoy time with Kamijou Touma'. There were some limits towards such a thing and probably some possible routes that could not be taken and things that had to be avoided such as the arrest of Kamijou before.

Normally, it should have been impossible for a normal middle schooler such as Saten to convince Anti-Skill of someone's innocence without proof however she had done it. Such was an example of possible events that could be influenced because of the dream.

However that in turn gave Saten questions about what type of other limits there were.

Given the nature of the dream, one came to mind that caused her to blush slightly at the thought however she gave a mischievous grin as she thought about it more.

"Hey Kamijou-san?" asked Saten.

"Yes? What is it?" asked the oblivious boy as Saten merely asked her question that she felt probably crossed the 'limits' that had been spoken of.

Nothing lost, nothing gained as she said. If there was something to discover, she may as well jump straight into the fray instead of hovering on the sidelines and hoping that her question was answered indirectly. Saten was not that kind of girl meaning that she was upfront and directly asked her question with a blush on her face despite the embarrassment that she was feeling.

"D-Do you want to visit a lo-love hotel?"

"Wh-WHAT!?"

Kamijou's face went extremely red as he took a step back.

What happened next completely blew Saten Ruiko's mind away.

Kamijou was not watching where he was stepping, causing him to step onto the road behind him, just as a motorcycle (that had come from nowhere), did a wheelie, smashing its front wheel into the boy's head, throwing him to the ground before rolling over his body and making a quick escape at the hit-and-run.

Kamijou Touma hit the ground, people screamed and Saten went white in the face as she saw what happened.

W-Was this the penalty of meeting the 'limit'? The death of her date!? There was something to be said about the misfortune there and she was glad that she was not a sadist however what happened next surprised her even further.

Kamijou Touma, despite the pool of blood that was slowly forming around his head, _raised his head from the tarmac, eyes coming into focus as if they had been dunked in sugar water_.

"Wha-? What happened? G-Gyah?! Where did this blood come from?! What happened to me?" He said with a panic in his voice however saw Saten in his vision, eyes lighting up as if he had discovered some sort of objective as he shakily stood up.

"Sorry Saten, what did you say? I…I can't remember."

Saten gaped at his statement as the boy looked around in order to try and discover what had happened, people looking in surprise just as she was.

Was….was that how it was dealt with!? Any question that crossed the 'limit' meant that the boy had his memories erased in some way!? Here it was temporary amnesia due to blunt force trauma but was that always going to happen?

N-No, surely that was a coincidence. Saten had to be extremely sure as she once again swallowed her embarrassment and asked her question in order to test the 'limits' of the dream.

"I-I said, d-do you want to visit a lo-love hotel!?"

* * *

By the time Saten Ruiko had discovered that asking questions that broke the 'limits' were off limits, she felt as though Kamijou was on the verge of being labelled a tactical weapon of misfortune.

She had asked again and in response, a street light had smashed onto his head, erasing his memories of the question being asked.

She had asked again and in response, part of the rails of the monorail overhead had come apart, sending a metal beam into the boy's head, rendering him unconscious for a moment before he woke up, one again his memories having been gone due to the trauma.

She had asked again and in response, he had fallen through the floor of Seventh Mist, falling into the women's bathroom below where he was beaten within an inch of his life. When he recovered from his state of unconsciousness, once again she found that his memories were gone regarding her asking the question.

And so on and so forth.

"A-Are you alright?" she asked the boy with concern.

"S-such misfortune. I get the feeling as though something really major has happened to me however I have no idea what it is. Sh-Should I be worried Saten-san?" asked Kamijou towards her, opening the bandages that were wrapped around his mouth.

She shook her head rapidly in response as she sat at the table in Seventh Mist that they had arrived at, looking around herself and the food that she was eating for lunch.

While this was a dream, she felt as though she could order anything however apparently, Kamijou Touma had a budget which had left her rather disappointed as she had ordered something expensive on the menu. Kamijou had severely protested (although with glances in shock towards what she was ordering) but had bought it anyway, the boy himself only ordering a tap water.

The food itself was spread out as she poked it with a fork a Kamijou sipped on his tap water, not even glancing towards Saten as he across the balcony to the people that were walking down there.

Was this even a date? Although the context of 'being used to lift something heavy' was used to bring Kamijou into the dream, she had yet to be relieved of such a weight as she put some food into her mouth.

Still, why was this boy that had chosen to be the centre of the dream? It made no sense towards Saten.

He was just a normal high schooler. He was built like a tank given what he had faced and survived however Saten was sure that it was just the dream's influence. He complained about normal things, got tired from walking too much, avoided girl's changing rooms unlike other perverts, had a budget like anyone and was a face that was forgotten in a crowd. While his life that Saten had given him seemed interesting enough, at the end of the day, he truly was a normal high school boy.

Yet he and his spiky hair were the ones that were a part of 'the best-selling dream among females of ALL ages in Academy City'. Why was it a best seller then? Was it because of the dream was around a date? Or was it because 'he' was the one that was the focus of the dream?

"Say Kamijou-san, what Level are you?" asked Saten towards the boy as he looked over towards her.

"Level 0." said Kamijou offhand as Saten nodded slowly. "And yourself?"

"Same. I'm…A Level 0." she said as she turned and faced the people that were walking beneath the two of them as they watched the crowd in Seventh Mist as Kamijou seemed to notice something that Saten had not tried to hide, a sense of lacking and guilt that weighed heavily on her soul.

"Is there something wrong Saten-san?" he asked her as she turned towards him, seeing that he had turned completely to face her as if paying extreme attention to her words. She found it odd that a complete stranger would merely offer an ear towards her problem however it was probably because this 'collage' of the real thing had been created to meet her needs.

Was this why she was so honest? Because in this dream reserved for just the two of them the collage of 'Kamijou Touma' would always keep her secrets? He was nothing more than a part of the dream so Saten felt as though she could tell him anything. After all, who could he tell in response?

She sighed and looked down at the food that was in front of her, her mind turning as she put down the fork slowly, leaning back in her chair as she brushed some of her black hair out of her face.

"I…am a Level 0 Kamijou-san. Do you know what that means? It means that I have _nothing_. I am a part of the worthless 60% of the 80% of 2.3 million that are a part of the Power Curriculum Program. I came to this City to try and find something beyond what I had in a normal life. Of course there are always things that I can find however the one thing that I came to expect from the City was something that was never delivered."

Saten let out the heavy words as she felt as though something was being slowly lifted off her as she spoke.

"I truly want something that only I can have. And my ability, no matter how weak it is, is the only thing that I can call my own. I don't care if other people have this ability, it was this ability that I gained through the Program. And I hate how that very thing is something that is barely on the verge of existing."

It was as if she had waited for someone to tell this too, that she still felt the need to have something, even if it was slightly, after feeling the exhilaration of power after using the Level Upper.

"Since that part of me, which is based on me as a person is so weak; does that mean that I am, as a person, weak as well? Is there very little of the person known as Saten Ruiko? I just want something, anything that I can call my own. Even if it is small, I selfishly want that. I don't care that other people can look at Level 0s and think that they are nothing. I just want that small piece of power. I once had it you know. A small fraction of something that allowed me to really feel good about myself for once."

She gripped her hands underneath the table into fists as she continued speaking within the dream, doing so to someone who she knew would keep her secret and accept her words. This was her dream after all.

"And I loved it. No matter what happened afterwards and what it was being used for, I felt as though I was no longer that worthless person that Academy City had labelled me as. I felt special, like I was worth something. And that feeling cost me something more than I can imagine. How pitiful is that? I want something that made me lose so much. I fell into a trap because there were people that felt the exact same as me, people who had nothing and still do. But that hasn't changed for me. Even though I can smile with my friends and truly enjoy what I have now, I can never have that same feeling within me return. That happiness that I created for myself was nothing more than an illusion. No matter how hard I try, no matter what I do…"

Saten was aware of something rolling down her cheek however no person called out to her to stop crying. No person dried her tears. These were her mark, something that she felt as though had to be released from her soul in order for her to come to terms with it.

"I can never achieve anything higher than nothingness. I am always going to be Saten Ruiko, the Level 0 with hardly any powers and nothing to call her own because a weak power is held by a weak person. How is that right? How can I be given this without any input of my own? Do I own nothing? Was I born like this? No matter what happens, I'll always chase something else however that feeling is always at the back of my mind like a lingering _disease_."

Her words were soaked with her pure emotions as she spoke.

"I hate having chosen the Level Upper. I loved that feeling however it cemented the reality of what I am. I am nothing and can never achieve something genuine with my own power. I am a worthless person with nothing to call my own and I hate it! I hate it!"

Saten showed tears that she would never show in the world that she truly lived in. This was her space and this pain was something that she could not have solved by another. No matter what one said, Saten Ruiko would never forget that feeling of having gained something only to have the truth revealed as it was taken away.

Despite her smiling with her friends and telling everyone it was alright, she held these feeling within her heart, keeping them locked away for only her to hear.

She would continue the façade no matter what because she truly wanted the people around her to think that she was happy and in turn, allow them to be happy as well.

Still, she let out a small chuckle as she wiped away the tear rolling down her cheek.

'Kamijou Touma' had appeared in front of her in order to 'help her with heavy lifting'. And right now, she felt as though she truly had been lifted of something heavy. Like the weight of her soul had been lifted ever so slightly as she spoken in the dream.

Funnily enough, the real Kamijou Touma would never know of the faith she confided in him with. After all, this was her dream, her acceptance and mind, and nothing in here would ever deny her. It was selfish and perhaps something that only she could understand how she truly felt that in this space, where everything would agree with her that she could confide in this boy in front of her right now –

"If that's what you want then aren't you looking in the wrong place for something to call your own?"

….Wait.

What?

Saten Ruiko looked up towards 'Kamijou Touma' who was looking at her in a serious fashion that she seriously thought that he was a real person rather than a construct from the dream.

"….What did you say?"

"As a Level 0, you sought something. You found it through power however that lingering feeling in the back of your mind…is it really a realisation that you needed something to help you achieve something that you could not?"

"What are you saying?"

No, this was not the way it was supposed to go. He was supposed to agree. Agree! Saten had revealed her heart towards this boy and he had responded by saying 'No'. He had stomped on everything that Saten built up within herself as the boy continued to talk.

"I'm saying that maybe what you were looking for was not power to improve yourself. But rather that that powerlessness that you think you have can be overcome. You don't want power. What you want, Saten Ruiko, is the confirmation that your weakness is not permanent. That you have the power to hold something in your hand that makes you smile no matter what. You might think that gaining a stronger power gives you that happiness….but you're looking away from what can truly make you happy. I think the lingering feeling in the back of your mind is a realisation that you looked away from what truly could have made you happy."

Saten stood up suddenly, Kamijou watching her do so as Saten clenched her fists in her hands, watching the ground as she struggled to face the boy that was responding towards her in a way that should not have been possible.

What was going on? Why was he talking like that? Was this some part of her that rejected her very essence, something that had been digging into her for ages?

"Besides. You've already given yourself something that can truly allow you to be happy."

"Wh-What do you know? You say you're a Level 0 however how can you know what I went through? I….was faced with myself and the worthlessness that was there! How can you say that I was wrong to think that? How can you say that-"

Saten felt herself tearing up once as Kamijou rose, the only two of them in this space as everyone else had disappeared, giving complete focus towards her and the boy in front of her.

"I can say that because of those words that you told me just now. Those words….they came not from a façade or an illusion. They came from the bottom of your heart as you came to realise something about yourself that you cannot face; your weakness."

"Of course I can't face it! How can I have someone look at me with pity when they realise that I took the Level Upper? Yes, I did it to be happy! I wanted something to have, to control, apart from anything else! I wanted to have worth! Is that so wrong?!"

"Having power Saten is not going to give you happiness. You might feel as though it can give you worth but it will not allow that smile to stay on your face. Power is for you and you only however it was only through another person that you felt saved right?" asked Kamijou towards her.

Saten wiped the tear out of her eye as she faced the dream that was in front of her. No, it was more like a nightmare. A nightmare where she was made to face her very inner demons and come to terms with them.

"What….do you mean?"

"When you told me what lay in your heart….your face did not show sadness or regret at the very end. It showed relief. You wanted to say this towards someone, to have someone listens and accept you for who you were in a way that they would not judge you. You wanted someone to listen to you and still keep their image of Saten Ruiko inside their head."

She wanted…..relief?

Saten felt herself almost swirling in the words that were given towards her however Kamijou kept on talking, approaching her and standing right in front of her.

"Saten-san. You talked to me, thinking that I was someone that would not judge you. I will never do so and there is nothing you can change about you will change what I think of you. But….you know this to be true don't you. This is nothing but a dream."

Saten felt hands touch her shoulders as she looked up and saw the smile on the boy's face, noting the colour that was within it.

Whoever was talking….it was not the interface that she had spoken with before surrounding the 'limits' of the dream. It was the collage Kamijou Touma accepting he was not real and talking to Saten from the heart that had formed from the collage.

It should not have been possible for the dream to recognise its self however Saten did not care that it was the case, opening her mouth and speaking her words.

"Then….what can I do? What can I do to be happy?"

"You already know. You wanted to smile with your friends without that feeling within you lasting did you not? You wanted power but when that was gone, you only wanted to stay happy with others. But that power that you acquired meant that you made your friends suffer. You made them hurt and that hurt you. You wanted to overcome yourself yet you harmed those you did not think to be involved. You harmed their happiness and it's eating you from the inside. And there is only one way that you can be happy then, to overcome your weakness."

Saten felt a cold realisation wash over her.

"You need to tell your friends what you told me just now. It is through that you can truly allow there to be acceptance of yourself and your weakness and thus allow you to be happy." said Kamijou.

Saten Ruiko though hung her head as words of doubt flowed from her mouth.

"But….but what if they reject me when I show them my heart? I'm flawed for taking the Level Upper. I'm flawed as an existence and as an esper. What…what if Uiharu and the others reject me because of what I am? I….I don't think I could take that."

"They won't. They are friends that you wanted to see smiling no matter what and you are beating yourself up over your choices and how they hurt them. Such a friendship is only something that will last not matter what the obstacles that are put through it. Even if you are flawed Saten Ruiko, those friends will surely accept you. After all, they are your friends are they not?"

Saten accepted the words for what they were and carved them into her heart however she still felt hesitation for one key reason that did not need to be said.

She was still scared. No matter what her choice, she had harmed Uiharu, Shirai and Misaka and she had merely wanted them to be happy regardless. Yet she had hurt them and kept her problems to herself in order to make sure that they could still be happy.

After all of that and she showed her inner demons to her friends….what if they still rejected her?

"You are strong Saten Ruiko, stronger than you can know. Even without power, there is nothing saying that within yourself is only the heart of a Level 0. It surpasses that and the fact that you can smile with this weight on your heart is a testament to that. You have truly overcome your lack of power and it was through others that you did so despite the pain."

Kamijou Touma smiled as he brushed a tear out of Saten's eye.

"You could have broken things off yet you chose to maintain them. It was because of that strength that allowed you to do that. That and the fact those friendships you hold are a part of that strength too. Keeping them will surely allow you to overcome anything that is in your path."

"I…just need to reveal my heart to my friends? Is that it? Is that what was needed from the very beginning to be happy?" asked Saten with a soft voice as she felt a warn sensation on her forehead, seeing that Kamijou had pressed his forehead against hers as if feeling a fever. They were so close that she could feel his breath on her skin however he spoke as she felt entranced by his words.

"Yes. And with that, you will surely be able to overcome the demons that Level Upper put inside you. Because you are strong Saten Ruiko. You thought that power gave you strength? The belief of others in you as a person is something beyond that entirely."

Kamijou moved his forehead away from her and smiled, something that brought a flush of colour towards Saten's cheeks.

How could she have been so blind? She wanted every day to be fun. She had told Misaka herself that friendship was something that was extremely powerful to be shared and held together by members of a friendship.

Yet she had never given her friends a second thought when it came towards the demons within her because she had told them that everything was alright. She had kept the façade and had burned inside for so long yet never thought to reveal her heart.

Yet all she had to do from the beginning was confide in her friends with the trust that they would accept her no matter what to be happy and released from her demons.

Somewhere a sunset sent bright colours to surround the both of them but Saten did not avert her gaze from the spiky haired boy.

"Be brave Saten. Be strong.

"And no matter what happens, any weakness that you have means nothing to me. I'll accept you no matter what happens or the pain you face Saten Ruiko. Because you are strong enough to beat that, even without an esper power, even if you are a Level 0. And you need to remember that."

Saten felt the grip of Kamijou on her shoulders tighten as she felt her heart race within her chest ever so slightly.

"You know the answer. Now seek it. Overcome the obstacle that is your heart Saten Ruiko and truly achieve that strength through your open words to that strong friendship. Be honest and live. And destroy that illusion of yours with that same strength."

Kamijou did not say anything else as he stared at Saten and she stared back, feeling as though the weight that was on her shoulders was lifted entirely, something that was caused by the combination of the realisation and hope that was given through the words provided to her.

She felt strong even as a Level 0 and that was something that she needed to feel in order to truly escape from these demons of hers.

However the moment that she was living was perhaps something that broke free of all of that.

The sunset covered the two of them as Kamijou Touma looked into Saten Ruiko's eyes, the two of them silent as Kamijou slowly bridged the gap between them, moving his lips closer towards Saten's.

She did not relent and she did not protest as she closed her eyes in order to treasure this moment forever inside her heart, her cheeks burning and heart racing.

That was her first kiss.

Something that was shared with Kamijou Touma as he bridged the gap, his warm breath cooling and chilling her lips as he brought himself to cross that final millimetre -

* * *

Just as Saten Ruiko woke up.

Her eyes stared at the ceiling of her residence as she blinked once and twice, the burning of her cheeks still evident on her face as she felt herself gag at the realisation of what she had just been through.

The slipping of the Indian Poker card off her head caused her mind to move at an extremely fast rate as she came to a conclusion regarding a mystery surrounding the card.

Hadn't there been a note saying:

'A continuation of the experience can be received by enclosing an envelope with the same amount of cash labelled 'Part 2' at the same location within 48 hours.'

"Th-That was going to be Part Twooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!?" She let out that yell as she stood up in her bed and slammed her head against the wall in a movement that was unlike her.

She panted heavily as she rose a hand towards her lips, glad that they were still untouched however the small beating in her heart increased as she remembered the spiky haired boy approaching closer and closer. Even though it had been a dream, she could still recall the sensation of his breathing on her, the feel of his forehead on her own and his hands on her shoulders.

Saten gripped her head, rolling on the floor in an exasperated fashion. It was supposed to be a dream so why was she feeling this way?! Just thinking about it sent her mind into chaos but she came to her senses as soon as she spotted something in the corner of her eye.

It was her cell phone.

All thoughts stopped as she looked at it, remembering the words and the weight that had been lifted off her by the spiky haired boy that had given her the solution towards the problem that she had faced internally, without anyone interfering.

It was a simple solution that she should have recognised however had turned away from it from fear of rejection. Still, that had all been cast aside as she reached for the phone, placing it near her face as she let the ringtone ring.

"Saten-san? Was it? What time is i-fbahahaab!? Saten-san!? Why are you calling at this hour!?"

"Uiharu."

Saten Ruiko's words were curt and to the point as she inhaled once and merely spoke once again.

"I have something to tell you, something that I've kept hidden from you all this time. Will….you listen to me?"

"Of course Saten-san."

The instantaneous reply that was given almost made Saten Ruiko's heart stop.

Was…was it this easy? Was revealing herself towards her friends and releasing the inner demons within her really this easy? Was the solution that she had been looking for all this time only been a step away?

The lone tear that rolled down her face was not one of sadness but rather happiness as Saten spoke towards her best friend, being relieved of a great weight that had been assisted by the presence of a spiky haired boy.

And it was those words that she spoke that allowed her to truly feel free for the first time since having used the Level Upper.

* * *

One mystery remained though.

As Saten Ruiko ran through Academy City, the real one of course, there was a major problem that had not been addressed.

It was her dream and everything in there was supposed to agree with her. If that was the case, why had the collage of Kamijou Touma rejected her so?

After thinking about it for most of the morning of the sixth day of the Daihaseisai, she found the solution to be rather easy to deduce. After all, she knew that the boy inside the dream was a part of the experience, however was not moulded by the mindset of the dreamer.

While she had an influence as the dreamer on the surroundings, the one thing that she could not affect was the boy Kamijou Touma. After all, he was a collage that had been brought together through observation of the boy himself meaning that anything that he did was something that 'would be something Kamijou Touma would do' and not influenced by her as the dreamer.

That was why Saten Ruiko's demons had been rejected and a solution had been revealed, allowing her to feel lighter and smile with a brilliant glow.

The response that had been given towards her was something that 'Kamijou Touma' as a person would have given if he had been faced with those same demons in real life.

He had become a silent listener and truly had allowed Saten to be relieved of a heavy weight.

She stopped running as she found her destination, hearing the voices of students in the waiting area of the stadium. While she had only seen the boy in real life once, she had remembered which school he had come from and upon realising that there was another event for that school coming up, she had ditched her friends that were glad that Saten had revealed herself to them and raced towards the stadium.

The event had yet to start however she spotted a face among the students that were loafing around and waiting for something to happen. He was chatting with two other boys, one with blue hair and blond hair, yet did not see the girl as she approached.

That spiky hair was something that was matched, even in the dream as Saten steeled herself and boldly walked forward.

Right now, she was happy. She had been released of something that was her own, replaced with an angel to counter the demons.

"Excuse me? Kamijou-san?"

"Hey! You! You're not part of this event so I'll have to ask you to leave."

A big breasted girl with a large forehead, accompanied with a foreign-looking, silver haired cheerleader that was looking rather worried headed towards her. Saten though did not notice any of this as Kamijou Touma turned around and faced her, looking at her before realisation of who she was came onto his face.

"Saten….san? What are you doing here? I-I didn't negate that charm's effects did I?!"

The other two boys were giving him piercing looks and she swore that all of the high school students had stopped (most notably the boys) and were looking at the two of them.

She did not care though as she opened her mouth and spoke.

It may have been a dream however the small thumping of her heart and blush on her face were real. Her cheeriness and elation at having the goal of meeting the boy that had indirectly allowed her to get rid of her demons was real.

And more importantly, the happiness and strength that she discovered she could attain was definitely real as well.

And there was one person that she had to thank for all of that as she grinned while facing the boy.

"I'll have you take responsibility for what you did, OK?"

Kamijou Touma's face went white as he dropped the drink that he had been holding as Saten turned around and went back the way she came, a light spring in her step as she skipped out of the stadium where the event was being held.

"Kami-yan, what the hell have you been doing in your spare time!? Th-that's the 17th one to say that to you today nyah~!"

"Bringing the total to 142 since the third day of the Daihaseisai! T-Teach me please sensei!"

"I-I was right. I'm nothing but a backdrop. What can I do to get noticed? I wasn't even named here."

"Another one!?"

"The Kami-yan Disease strikes again!"

"Are you planning on infecting guys next!?"

"Are you the one behind that dating site collapse yesterday!? I was using that you know."

"Kamijou. Any last words?"

"Toumaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…."

"….Such misfortune."

Saten heard the scream (however not the other voices) erupt through the air, wondering if the boy would ever discover what it was that he was held responsible over. She did not mind though, after all that mystery was something that she had hidden in her own heart.

A heart that had an angel inside that repelled the demons.

And Saten Ruiko chuckled to herself as she held the Dream Ranker card within her hands, the card that had given her the perfect Dream.

* * *

**The important thing for this was the idea of 'façade'.**

**While we all have things and way we act around others, there are just things that we keep to ourselves and cannot show anyone because of their nature. In this way I felt as though Saten, who treasures her friends and would truly fear getting separated from them, would fear revealing the thoughts that she had for fear of rejection.**

**Naturally, such things cannot be revealed towards a complete stranger however what about someone that you knew for certain would keep your secret? A dream perhaps? Saten's honesty then is rooted in the idea then that she knows she will not be betrayed.**

**So what did you think? Having Touma the centre of the dream where the 'personality' created is not based on the mind of the dreamer but rather the boy himself meant that Touma is essentially being used by numerous females in the City. While Saten had him lift the weight off her shoulders, remember that the premise of the card was that of a 'date'. It might be interesting to see how other characters that know him better would react towards such a thing no?**

**However the focus was Saten. While she needed to be brought into this through a rumour, allowing her the chance to lift something off her was a part of her character. Feeling as though that she could not rely on her friends then was another part of that weakness that she did not address. Given the Level Upper and the effect it had on her, the story allows for the resolution of these issues however at their core, I think Saten might have a few regrets. Naturally this is one of them although it is solved through her confidence with Uiharu and the others.**

**I hope you enjoyed it though and looked forward to next time, which will be request driven!**

**Just what was Part 2 of the dream here? Do you think any other characters should experience the same thing? What did you think of my first attempt at a proper kiss?**

**We'll see.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**The Kami-yan Disease is slowly being spread without Touma doing anything…I think that maybe this is scariest part of it.**


	10. The Interrogation

**And like I said last chapter, we are back here with the requests! Somehow I feel as though this project is both driven by me and the reader who is reading this now. While some people have an idea for a fanfic, sometimes it is never posted it because of time constraints and the like. I guess here suggestions are welcome as it makes it seem as though more than one person is involved.**

**I hope though that I get a lot of people wanting to get involved here and ask for some kind of one-shot. While every now and then (like with the last chapter and first 4), I'll do in something that I thought of myself, at the same time I want you guys to feel a part of something too.**

**Hence this project.**

**But at the same time, there is also the one project that everyone seems to like. It seemed like the last chapter was well received (I eternally thank you for such comments as well) but there are also chapters out there that people want to see more of. For KurobaraIto, they truly liked the Himegami chapter which is fairly rare given….well it's Himegami.**

**Please note that I am open to the idea of a Part 2 for any of the one shots that have been given, as has been suggested for the previous chapter as well.**

**HOWEVER THIS IS AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE. Given the state of my life and how things are going, it might be a while (hopefully we're talking September) before I update again. There has been a build-up of life going on for me at the moment meaning that I have not really had time to write. This applies to both ACUL0 and BTL meaning that it will be a while before I can get the chance to get down to working here again. It will happen though and I plan to do an early release of the first chapter next arc of ACUL0 with this same message so I hope that you guys will accept what is and wait patiently. So it might be a while until the next update.**

**Sorry. If anything, these small bits in the top allow me to tell you guys what's happening about this and my main project. **

**But thanks so much.**

**And a little shout out! for me over here in Australia, it's the 28th of July. The day a certain someone had their memories destroyed to save the life and smile of a single nun. And that is where our story began. So Happy Birthday Kamijou Touma!**

**But right now, I want to honour a request given by iwannaread000 who asked:**

Can I suggest something? Can you make a chapter where the Delta Force meets the Railgun Girls and mingle? :)

**As for whether or not I do so, well here is your answer. Again though keep in mind that if you want something and have already asked for one, please be patient when it comes towards me getting around to it as there are others that haven't really had their turn! I think that's fair….right? But then again, as I alternate it might seem as though I'm not being fair…..**

**But for now, I'd like to thank the two major parties here. The first is of course my beta reader PokeRescue18. With his support I was able to bring this too you so I want to thank him for everything that he has done, through thick and thin.**

**And you the reader. For those that read this and posted a review asking for something thank you very much (you know who you are). And for those that truly wanted something to read here I want to thank you as well for the time you have given towards this. The one-shots might seem short but they are nothing but weird senses of humour and friendship.**

**And before we start, a Q &amp; A:**

**dragon rider: …..You want Touma to try and use the same card Saten did? First of all, I doubt it as it is aimed at females but given his misfortune…..I truly think that he would be traumatised for the entirety of the story. Good thing these are non-canon to my other project. As for childhood friends….I have no idea but it might apply to a Part 2!**

**FreakFactor: As for your request (it might take a while given how others want a Part 2 as well, meaning I might have to extend it to like a Part 3 and stuff which I'm open to doing) I have no idea what you meant by Another Colours? I'm open to it but if you could clarify, we'll see how things go.**

**Besides that:**

**So I hope you enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark**

* * *

A Doubtlessly Legal But Immoral Act. _This_Is_JUDGMENT_

Around the square table, located at each of its sides, the quartet of Misaka Mikoto, Shirai Kuroko, Uiharu Kazari and Saten Ruiko felt as though they had been drained of all energy. They leaned forward with their heads on the table in front of them in a listless fashion, eyes looking forward however not taking in anything at all.

They were all currently located inside an interrogation room in an Anti-Skill office in District 7.

While the division between the child forces of Judgment and the adult forces of Anti-Skill meant that it was usually the latter that took on major operations, non-violent esper interrogations and interactions were usually left towards the forces of Judgment.

It might seem arrogant towards the normal Judgment member in regards to the power that the Anti-Skill members exerted over the younger Judgment members however each and every one of them knew what they had signed up for.

Yet despite that, the two Judgment members, the Level 5 and the Level 0 still felt drained.

While Shirai had been called to participate in the interrogation, it had been her extreme enthusiasm to have her Onee-sama with her for some 'private time' afterwards. Unfortunately for her though, as soon as the words 'non-violent' were mentioned, the eavesdropping Saten had immediately asked to tag along.

It was against practically all protocols however she had insisted, much to the chagrin of her best friend Uiharu and thus for safety reasons, Uiharu had tagged along as well. Naturally this threw a monkey wrench into the hands into the plans of the Level 4 however she was adamant towards working around them.

She had received a report about the people to be interrogated (who had all been put in the same room, something that was oddly against protocols) stating that they had caused a minor brawl and were charged with causing a public disturbance.

The interrogation then served towards determining the nature of the individuals involved. If they were delinquents, chances were that there would be some sort of detention involved in the Reformatory in District 10 although not for a long time or some form of community service.

However she still felt as though she had been drained as soon as she entered the room.

"I'm telling you, being aggressive is the only way to go damn it!"

The others did as well. Although Saten had been eager given the content of the report identifying the cause of the scuffle they had caused meaning was not serious, she felt as though it would be amusing if anything to meet the people that had decided to enter a fight because of 'that reason', she now regretted her choice immensely.

"Please! You can't be aggressive with that guillotine hanging over you! You need to divert! Divert before fading into darkness nyah~!"

The expressions of the others seemed to suggest the same tiredness as well, even from Mikoto. They had been in here for the past 10 minutes and the conversations that had taken place between the offenders had been like a Formula 1 race; going around and around and around a track of thought however never really advancing anywhere.

"But then another guillotine is going to form over your own head! Trust is the bond to be forged, not some false connection based on aggressiveness or temporary avoidance!"

The three parties that had been involved were chained up and located in three spots around the room; one of them directly behind Mikoto who was sitting closest towards the door, another in the far corner of the room, facing the left corner of the table between Shirai and Saten and the other facing the right corner of the table, in between Saten and Uiharu.

They had all identified themselves although not directly on the report but through the profanities that they gave towards each other despite being handcuffed and chained to the wall's railings.

Aogami Pierce, Tsuchimikado Motoharu and another party that many there were acquainted with, although briefly; Kamijou Touma, were wearing their winter school uniform and looking rather beat up.

"Gaining popularity is only done through taking the first step! Where do we lie as otakus? Trapped within our own shells of nothing as we face the 2D world, that's where! So we must be aggressive if you want to be popular! 3D might let us down but at least it would be because of the world and not us!" shouted Aogami, who was in facing the left corner between Saten (who was opposite Mikoto) and Shirai (who was opposite Uiharu).

"Lies! Popularity comes from nothing more than a give and take relationship! Failure in this causes the entire build-up of flags and events to fall apart! How does your option allow the growth of a 3D relation?! You need to defer the problem and focus on how you need each other before solving it silently! The protagonist that we are must take control!" shouted back Tsuchimikado.

"Are you guys idiots?! Aogami, your choice is just ridiculous. Aggressiveness doesn't address the issue at hand! Are you considering anyone but yourself through that option!? And Tsuchimikado, you talk about deference but in the end how does that advance anything even if you chose to act in the darkness and backstab even if you have the knowledge around the problem!? You might have missed something that can advance what you have!" Kamijou let out that yell as well however it was unclear if they could see each other at all.

"Ridiculous Kami-yan! I refuse to accept you and your false claims of harem making ways when you would do the same as I would! It's aggressiveness!"

"Pfft! Where is the romance in that?! It's deferring and then taking the darkness around you and solving the problem that way!"

"No it's not! Even though you can do that, there's no truuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust!"

"CAN YOU IDIOTS JUST SHUT UP?!"

Mikoto stood up violently, knocking the chair she was sitting on backwards as she stared at the Delta force with what looked to be bloodshot eyes.

"Can someone please explain to me how exactly you got into a brawl...over this…._stupid topic_?!"

Her words were harsh and sharp as she turned her head towards those around her, daring someone to speak however it was Kamijou that addressed her, opposing her once again.

"Stupid topic?! Misaka, I wouldn't expect a middle schooler with no life experience to understand but this is the bread and butter of high school life! These issues are what we senpais have to deal with every day! I won't let you insult usssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!"

"You Level 5s have it easy with all the relaxation you do however normal students turn away from these philosophical discussions! This is romance. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrromance!" Aogami roared into the air.

"How can you call something you don't understand stupid?! Isn't that running away from the problem at hand?! We are dealing with something serious head on so listen to us and take everything us mature students say and add it to life experienceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Tsuchimikado let out that yell as well as Mikoto paled and slumped with a shocked look in her eyes.

"I….I can't get through to them. I….just can't."

"N-Now, now. Let's go over what this is all about shall we?" asked Saten as she tried to get an understanding of what the hell was going on.

"You guys have….what was it again? I think that everything was lost given how you guys are speaking without explaining the context haha." Uiharu let out a nervous laugh as she watched the three high schoolers. Was this what the next step in education did to males? She felt somewhat scared for her male classmates however still proceeded with trying to understand the incident at hand and thus the punishment these three would receive.

"Huh? Haven't you been listening whatsoever? When adults speak, it is your role as a middle schooler to listen intently! Why is everything so wrong today!? Your youth romantic comedy will be wrong as expected if you keep this up!" Aogami yelled.

"For once I agree nyah~! Without that attentive nature, how else are you going to grasp the ideal and go down the senpai route? You need to ask questions about the topic at hand and allow yourself the chance to advance in the first place!" The sunglasses wearing Tsuchimikado replied with a yell to as Uiharu sweatdropped and laughed nervously.

(I _am _asking about the topic at hand though!)

She had that thought however her thoughts were cut off by the low, deep laughing of the third idiot.

"Tsuchimikado. You gave up the perfect opportunity to reference the essence of a middle schooler's relationship with a high schooler student that is attempting to educate them!" Kamijou said before turning towards Uiharu.

"Headband-san. Shirai, Saten and Misaka. As middle schoolers, it is your role to bow and heed towards the needs of the high schoolers, because of their higher ranking and possible knowledge acquirement you could get. But there is one more important thing that you need to keep in mind when going down such a route! And those are the three magic words that must drive you when conversing with such a being! These three words should be carved into your heart and serve as a reminder of what you aim to achieve from a relationship with high schoolers! And they are -!"

Aogami and Tsuchimikado went white in the face as they listened towards Kamijou.

"He couldn't be…! You mean…_those _three words!?"

"You can't just say them! Although it should be recognised subconsciously, saying them out loud is-!"

Mikoto, Shirai, Saten and Uiharu (who felt somewhat offended being termed 'Headband-san') ignored them however and leaned forward towards Kamijou. Somehow the words that he was saying drew them in, something about these mysterious three words filling them with anticipation.

Although they (in truth this was more Saten and Uiharu who went to a co-ed school) realised that there was perhaps more to a kouhai-senpai relationship that met the eye sometimes (case in point, Mikoto and Shirai although one-sided), was there some kind of motive that kept the kouhai moving towards the senpai? Were those three words what drove a kouhai to act in the first place?

Could the actions of a kouhai seeking an upperclassman really be described in just three words?

Just what did a kouhai want their senpai to do to them in regards to their relationship?

Kamijou took a deep breath as he spoke those words, speaking the desire of kouhais as they ran after their senpais.

"Senpai, notice meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

The quartet made gagging sounds with their mouths as the idiot yelled into the air, something that was added to the remaining duo of idiots as they joined in.

"Senpai, notice meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

"Senpai, notice meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

They yelled at the top of their voice as Shirai twitched, teleporting in an instant as she slammed her feet in Kamijou's face, throwing him backwards before he fell forward, unable to do so completely because of the handcuffs.

"I want to sentence you to life imprisonment just so you don't spread that stupid idea throughout society!" she spat out, constantly kicking Kamijou in the side.

"Ha-bfbfbf?! Do you really – bfbffhf – think that you don't think the same Shirai-kun!? Do you not want Mikoto to notice you? Clear case of 'senpai, notice me'!"

"You shut the hell up!" Mikoto lost it as she approached the boy as well, kicking him in the side as the Tokiwadai ladies ganged up on the detained high schooler, although Shirai having paused for a moment as her inner thoughts and feelings were summed up within three words.

"U-Um, can we at least focus on the issue at hand? What were you guys even fighting about in the first place?" asked Saten as she turned her eyes away from the abuse that was going on, looking towards Aogami.

"Huh? Weren't you paying attention? Basically, we're focusing on love troubles."

"L-Love?!"

"L-Love?!"

"L-Love?!"

"Onee-sama is going to give me some-!?"

"Don't get ahead of yourself there Kuroko."

Mikoto shot down Shirai instantly as she fell forward in shock at her rejection as the trio of Saten, Uiharu and Mikoto looked at each other with reddened faces as they grinned towards each other.

It was not every day that they heard about this type of thing but here they were, in the battlefield of learning about a true high schooler romance! While it seemed as though it only truly happened in manga as they were only in middle school, perhaps there was some truth and worth in listening towards what these idiots had to say!

"Why didn't say so in the first place? This is great, super great! Well, what love troubles are you guys facing? Which one of you is it…..?"asked Saten with a grin as she turned towards the faces of Aogami and Tsuchimikado before turning back towards Kamijou who was slowly recovering.

"Don't tell me-?" she said towards him. She glanced towards Mikoto, as did Uiharu as they both felt their smiles reach all the way to their cheeks as they stared towards her and back towards the boy that was getting his bearings back.

Ever since the Folk Dance on the last day of the Daihaseisai, there had definitely been something there, between the two of them. It seemed as though only Mikoto had whatever it was however it was clear that she had it BAD.

"W-Wait you two! Your faces suggest a misunderstanding! There's nothing going on! N-Nothing!" Mikoto immediately denied what the two of them were implying as Kamijou groaned, looking between the Sakugawa Middle School duo and the Railgun, and noting her red face as she turned towards Kamijou.

She shrunk back almost instantly, holding her head down as she played with her skirt in a somewhat failed attempt to avert eye contact and not bring any more attention towards herself.

"What are you guys talking about? This is about someone else." replied Kamijou with a confused look as the duo seemed to look at him with a bored expression as if he had ruined their fun.

"Wh-Why didn't you say so, idiot? H-Huh, yeah there's no chance that you could ever get someone to like you! H-Hahahahaha!" Mikoto laughed nervously as Kamijou's eyes seemed to glaze over in disappointment.

"Yeah….that's so true. I wish I could meet someone nice."

"Kill him!"

"You bastard! I just know that someone else is coming to barge through that door saying 'Kamijou Touma I love you!' you damn bastard! Are you mocking us who truly have no oneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee?!"

The remaining members of the Delta Force suddenly exploded with rage for no apparent reasons to the middle schoolers as they tugged on their handcuffs in an obvious attempt to reach and pummel the spiky-haired boy however he was clearly too deep in a pit of eternal despair to notice.

"Alright there! We are somewhat interested in this problem of yours so the least you can do is go through it completely!" Shirai stood up from the ground as she looked towards each delinquent chained to the wall, adding extra iciness to her glare for the ape, as she folded her arms.

This was perfect! Not only did it allow her an insight into the advancement of a relationship that she wanted to drive towards even a high school level however it also meant that she had the chance to maintain her relationship with Onee-sama, even when the two of them reached high school! The plan was flawless!

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease?" asked Uiharu in the cutest voice she could manage as Tsuchimikado sighed.

"Alright nyah~. It might be good to have an external opinion towards this. What do you say Aogami Pierce?" he asked.

If Aogami had his hands free he would have surely placed them underneath his chin, being deep in thought about the issue at hand.

"Yeah…you're probably right. Sometimes the maidens can only understand maidens. It is always the yuri scenes that always have the greatest sense of hidden appeal after all. Alright." He said nodding, not noticing the twitch from Mikoto the moment that he mentioned the word 'yuri'.

"You see, there is this girl that we know. And this guy. Now, this girl has come across a serious problem in the past few days. This guy though, caring deeply for her as you can probably imagine, investigated the problem without her knowing and already knows all of the details. However just a few days ago, she asked him about listening towards the problem that she had. Whether or not it is the same problem we don't know however it likely is. The thing is though, the school bell rang and the girl had to leave, leaving the guy with the topic on his mind." Aogami explained.

"And you were consulted on this?" asked Saten.

"Yes. In essence though, upon deliberation between him and us there are only three choices that he can make regarding the problem itself. The thing to note here is that the guy definitely wants to be with the girl and the same is applied vice versa." replied Tsuchimikado.

"Yes, yes." said Uiharu as she seemed rather intent on listening and taking everything down in her head, the two Tokiwadai middle school students having chosen to sit down at this point and listen intently as well. "So, what are the three choices?" she asked.

"One; my suggestion." said Aogami. "Kiss the girl and assure that he will stay with her despite the troubles that she faces!"

The moment that he said this, the faces of the girls all exploded red in an instant as their mouths flapped open and closed like some kind of spasm.

"K-K-K-K-K-K-K-"

"Kiss?!"

Note that the first response came from both Uiharu and Mikoto however the second came from Saten and Shirai as they deliberated on the choice.

"C-Certainly that does seem like the best thing to do! After all, it suggests that despite the problems at hand, there is only that connection that lasts." said Saten seriously.

"I agree! Aggressiveness is the way to go. Upon understanding that they only need each other, no problem can be tackled without their joint love! Onee-sama! I think we should demonstrate that very bond between us right now!"

"K-K-K-K-K-K-K-K-K-"

Mikoto though seemed too stunned at the prospect of Aogami's idea as Uiharu fell forward with a reddened face at the very thought of it occurring between people that she did not know. Someone's chastity was on the line and it was up to her to protect it, not only as a member of Judgment but also because she was hearing about this as well!

"A-Anyway! What is option two?" she asked nervously as all heads turned towards the blond haired boy with the sunglasses that seemed to shine without a light source making them do so.

"Hah! Option two, suggested by nyah~!" said Tsuchimikado proudly as he puffed his chest forward. "Avoid the problem at first however use the fact that the girl does not know about the guy's knowledge about it his advantage! He needs to strike in the darkness and solve that problem silently, allowing the obstacle that prevents their love from shining from coming through!"

"O-Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!" said Mikoto with an impressed tone, something that was matched by Saten's rise of an eyebrow.

"That's actually pretty neat too. But the girl doesn't know about the guy knowing about the problem right?"

"That's correct nyah."

"I prefer the first suggestion." said Shirai in an offhand tone however it was Uiharu that stood up and looked straight at her despite them sitting opposite each other.

"Shirai-san, how can you turn away from such a brilliant proposal? A knight coming in through the darkness, all for his beloved? It truly marks the start of a romance that is sure to transcend the bonds! The boy will keep his involvement hidden and the solution shall present itself in its perfect form! With that problem out of the way, their love can truly shine!" Uiharu's eyes twinkled like stars as Shirai seemed to back away at the sudden forcefulness of her tone.

"A knight huh…." whispered Mikoto as she felt her head twitch towards the boy behind her, turning her chair towards Kamijou.

"And? What is your brilliant suggestion in this case?" she asked rather forcefully as Kamijou frowned.

"Mine is option number three! When it comes towards this problem, there is only one thing that can be done for the guy. And that is to merely….listen. Listen and take everything in about the problem." noted Kamijou.

There was a brief silence in the room as he gave it as Mikoto turned back towards the table, noting that the girls had frowns on their faces when it came towards the suggestion.

"Really…? I mean, that's nice and all but what about the problem? I get that sometimes people want to get things off their chest but this is a serious problem right?" asked Saten.

"I think what…Kamijou-san is trying to aim for is that I guess? The 'getting the problem off the chest' idea?" said Uiharu in an unsure tone.

"Pfft. It's a ridiculous suggestion. One would expect nothing less from an ape."

"Listen huh….." Mikoto trailed off as she leaned backwards, looking at the boy with her head hung backwards on the edge of the chair as Kamijou sat up rather straight, feeling somewhat judged.

"Yeah. After everything that we deliberated, that was the answer that I was given. What of it? You guys can think what you like however I really think that listening is the best thing to do you know?" remarked Kamijou, feeling rather defensive however Mikoto turned her gaze back towards the other people at the table in the middle of the interrogation room.

"Well? What do you guys think?" she asked.

"Personally Onee-sama, I am all for aggressiveness! And to show how serious I am, let me show you the extent of my own loooooooooooooove!" shouted Shirai at the top of her lungs as she disappeared and reappeared over Mikoto as the Level 5 paled in response, standing up and conducting a magnificent manoeuvre demonstrating her strength.

"CHASER!"

With her leg angled up at 45 degrees, she slammed her foot into Shirai's face, sending the teleporter sprawling through the air where she slammed into one of the walls where she hung limp from the strike.

There were a number of people though that felt that it was too much however for the wrong reasons altogether.

"Shorts!? SHORTS?! Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo! You've ruined my dreams! Why are you wearing shorts?!" yelled Aogami as Mikoto shot him a death glare that made him stop all movement as he likely realised that the very next thing that he said was going to kill him. Even Tsuchimikado went pale at the glare that she was giving the blue haired boy, sensing the killer intent from her gaze instantly.

Even Saten and Uiharu seemed to jump at the gaze she was giving Aogami as the boy refrained from making any extra comments for his own safety.

However-

"I know right! Where's the feminine charm? Make your chest any flatter Misaka and I would have sworn you were a guy who liked crossdressing. Hahahaha!"

Unfortunately for Kamijou Touma, her back was facing him so he could not see her face as he made that joke. There was a slight pause as everyone went pale as Kamijou continued to laugh as Mikoto turned towards him, eyes red and a dark aura starting to form over her.

"Hahaha….ha…..ha. Misaka-san? What's with that expression? Oi, oi, I was joking! Joking! Please step away and don't touch me! Don't touch me! Are you really going to attack a defenceless Level 0?! Have some heart! Waaaaaaaaaaah!"

Kamijou yelled at the top of his voice as Mikoto bent down and placed a hand on his shoulder, the boy screaming as she did so however noting that no electricity surged through his body. He opened one of his closed eyes and saw the stiff smile of Mikoto in front of him as sparks seemed to come from her bangs.

"Hey."

"Y-Yes?" Kamijou felt tears come to his eyes as he realised that for once, Mikoto was going to show mercy! It was completely out of character but she was going to show mercy! This psycho tsundere! He awaited her next words with anticipation as his hopeful eyes met hers.

"Psych."

"You crushed my hopes instantlyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?!"

Kamijou's body became filled with electricity as he twitched like a frog's legs in an experiment as Mikoto stood up and cracked her neck in response as she turned towards those in front of her, ignoring the unconscious Shirai and Kamijou.

"Alright. Uiharu-san, I don't really want to tell you how to do your job but I think that the best way to determine punishment for these idiots is to determine which one has the idea with the most merit when it comes towards solving the problem. What say you?" asked Mikoto with all seriousness as the boke and tsukkomi skit was over for now.

"I…I completely agree Misaka-san. I'd like to say that they did something worth punishing but if this was all over a problem that we can't really begin to understand in the first place then I think it would be unfair to allocate jail time or community service. Solving the problem here would then be the best thing to do in my opinion." agreed Uiharu.

"I agree with my favourite Judgment member here!" shouted Saten with a grin. "If it's all about the heart then we gotta do something! I say that we let these guys choose the best decision out of the three and then let them speak to the guy whose problem it is around," she said. "What do you say Shirai-san?"

"Well part of me wants to punish that ape," remarked Shirai as she used a Max Revive on herself in order to live as she looked towards the boy that clearly needed a Paralyze Heal. "But I agree. As a Judgment member, this is a problem that has to be solved immediately. I am content with releasing these three once a conclusion around the problem has been reached." nodded Shirai.

"Right then! Ladies, choose your teams and we shall get under the choosing of the best solution to the problem at hand nyah~!" said Tsuchimikado with enthusiasm as the others nodded, Saten and Uiharu moving the table that was in the middle of the room to a wall where no one was as they all moved towards the side that they felt had the correct solution to the problem.

"Hey…Saten-san what are you doing over there? This option is the best one for sure!" said Uiharu.

"Sorry there Uiharu, but surely kissing is the best way to go! You wouldn't understand; you haven't even been out searching for urban legends as long as I have. Sometimes, you just have to take the initiative!"

"Kuroko…no, wait I had a feeling that you would be over there."

"The question Onee-sama is why you are over there!? Are we not supposed to be together?" blurted Shirai however it seemed as though the matchups on who was for what opinion were already figured out from the start.

It was already clear in the minds of all who were there however they went over once again the details within their minds.

The problem: choose what option, out of three, a certain boy should take in regards to the girl that he likes (who likes him back) surrounding a certain problem in regards to the solution. Note that the boy already has knowledge surrounding the problem with all details known and the girl does not know of that knowledge gained by the boy.

The solution: out of three options, choose which one has to be taken in order to achieve the best solution to the problem.

Option 1: Ignore the problem and go in for the kiss. Suggester: Aogami Pierce. Supporters: Shirai Kuroko and Saten Ruiko.

Option 2: Avoid the problem in discussion however solve from the shadows without the girl's knowledge. Suggester: Tsuchimikado Motoharu. Supporters: Misaka Mikoto and Uiharu Kazari.

Option 3: Listen to the problem from the girl. Suggester: Kamijou Touma. Supporters:….Kamijou Touma?

"Hey, what's with that narration you bastard!?" yelled Loner Kamijou Touma towards the fourth wall however his cries were ignored as he cried despite blowing on parts of his skin that felt as though they were burned.

"Hey there Kami-yan, it looks as though for once we managed to beat you!"

"Hahahaha! Now you know how it feels to be all alone nyah!~"

"I'm gonna hit you two so hard when we get out of here!" yelled Kamijou, the personification of being Forever Alone, however noted that he was losing his cool and shook his head as he felt as though the tension inside this room from the girls and guys was surely going to explode at any moment.

Taking the role of the gentlemen then, he cleared his throat and got the attention of those that were inside the room.

"Right well if that's the way it's going to be, that's fine," he started. "I guess the best way that we can figure this out is like this: Aogami, Tsuchimikado and I, we'll all share our opinions and counter the opinions of the others. Misaka, Shirai, Saten and Headband-san, you'll just need to listen as you already agree on the points but you can have some degree of input to support your opinion. Don't counter the other side's opinion as this will get out of hand quickly as a result. After listening to all opinions and countering for the other side's, we choose which one is the best with everyone getting a say. That good?"

Kamijou laid down the rules and gathered nods from everyone that was around due to their fairness as Uiharu (deemed Headband-san) put up her hand.

"Um…Kamijou-senpai?"

"Senpai was noticed! I was noticed! ...Ahem *cough*, yes?" asked Kamijou after losing it for a bit there.

Uiharu sweatdropped in response however cleared her throat and asked her question.

"What if one of the side's strongly objects to another side's opinion? I mean that was what started the fight isn't it?" she asked.

"Hmm…..I get your point. Alright, when one is debating the other side's opinions, NO ONE can interfere or make remarks during it. You can only do so during your turn got it!?" spat out Kamijou seriously towards the others as they all nodded in response.

"Alright, Aogami, you go first. Whether you want to debate mine and Tsuchimikado's opinions first or you want to defend yours then that's up to you. We'll follow your lead."

"Is that so? Hmm….." said the blue haired boy as he leaned his head backwards as he took a deep breath in as he looked towards Tsuchimikado.

"Right, I'm gonna start by having a go at you, you sis-con! How can you think that offsetting the problem will solve it! You have to deal with things like this with love! How else are you going to break through the barriers without the kiss? Without the chance of physical contact, there will be no avenue for the rise of yourself as the protagonist! Moe is where things go in life! Problems? Issues? The only thing that you need is moe!" shouted Aogami before turning towards Kamijou.

"And the same thing for you Kami-yan! Listen to the problem that is the most ridiculous thing that I've ever heard of! How can you do that without reassuring that you will be by the side of your beloved forever? For time traveller girls that can leave your side and immortal android girls that do not rust or die, this is a key concept! Tell them that you will be by their side regardless of what happennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnssssssssssss! And the only way that this is done is through….the kiss! The kiss!" cried out Aogami in excitement as it seemed as though he was about to burst from the energy he was emitting.

"The main concept of a maiden's heart starts with the impossible gap that has to be overcome. This is a constant throughout all genres, no matter what the fetish, unless you overcome this one barrier, there is going to be nothing else than despair and tragedy! Regardless of the girl, the contact is what needs to be done. Outer space girls do it with their first contact! Deity girls do it through their connection with us mortal humans. How else are we going to ensure that we stay by someone else's side without the consideration of us as a placement within their hearts?! Damn it you guys, do you not see? We need the kiss to ensure that the girl stays with us! Without doing so will only mean that they can slip through our grasp and the genre that she has will be lost. Even though it might be emulated, it will never be redone. Why can you not see this very basic point!?"

Aogami yelled to the world as his supporters, Saten and Shirai truly wondered whether or not he was on the same page as them. While his idea was one they supported, his reasons for suggesting it seemed rather…profound. What was that even the right word?

Still, they felt themselves speechless in response towards Aogami's logic as the silence that covered the room seemed to indicate that Aogami was done, the twitching that was coming from Kamijou and Tsuchimikado from what was disapproval of what Aogami said being obvious. Still, Kamijou cleared his throat and, being a gentleman, tried to calm down.

"R-Right. There we go. Aogami, you've countered our points and made your own argument. ….Whatever it was. Tsuchimikado, your turn." remarked Kamijou as all eyes turned towards the blond haired spy.

"Me, nyah~?" asked Tsuchimikado before he turned towards Aogami. "Alright, firstly the lack of genre spectrums that you have there, Aogami, are clearly faulty. Outer space girls? Deity girls? Surely they have problems that they need solved but it is the role of the protagonist to ensure that their life problems are something that are burdened with! Without doing so and silently relieving them of the problem, being the silent hero is the only way to do things! It shows the love, the love! Whether it be the effort towards learning how to clean even with a maid or nursing back to health when you have a nurse, going in for the kiss avoids the problem at hand! You need to overcome the obstacle silently by solving it damn it!"

Tsuchimikado then turned towards Kamijou.

"And Kami-yan, do you really believe that listening will do anything? Lending an ear does not lend a hand! Going in for the silent takedown and kill allows you to surely live in the days of peace that are revelled in. The problem is solved and the mystery of such allows the encounter to surely last beyond what is known. The realm of the human heart seeks salvation no matter what it comes from! Why else do we have tsunderes seeking love and yanderes seeking possession? It is because they want to have their problem solved, and using the abilities of the protagonist that we are allows for that nyah~!"

Tsuchimikado said those words however once again, his supporters had eyes for dots as they were completely lost upon his point. Sure they supported it however the logic for why he was countering the other's opinions was chop logic to say the least.

"Choosing to strike back in the darkness in the best thing that we can do! If we want to ensure that the love can continue without feeling as though we are being constrained within the limits of the complication that we have, how can we do so without solving the problem at hand!? It is obvious what we should do then to allow the romance to blossom into spring! And that is to silently solve the problem from the side to allow it to shine nyah~!" replied Tsuchimikado as all eyes blinked upon his point.

Again, while it seemed as though his point was valid, his reason for choosing it as an option seemed to be rather narrow minded and focused on the 2-dimensional aspect. Wasn't he aware that this was a real person and problem that they were talking about?

Still, his supporters of Mikoto and Uiharu, despite not understanding his logic, crossed their arms and nodded in false understanding.

"Absolutely." said Mikoto. "Overcoming the problem is the first and foremost thing that needs to be done. A friend in need is a friend indeed after all. Solving this issue then becomes the most important thing to be considered when it comes towards advancing the l-love." She stumbled over the word as Uiharu (Headband-san) nodded as well.

"Right! A knight has to come to save the princess in her times of need! Although you Shirai-san and Saten-san feel as though going in for the kiss is the best option, the knight needs to come bursting in and relieving the princess of her hefty weight!" remarked Uiharu with a smile.

"Hey there, how can you say that Uiharu!? It's aggressiveness that gets the job done! One needs to reassure that the hero is with the princess after all and going in for the kiss surely will allow this girl to know that no matter what the problem, the guy will stay by her side!" retorted Saten.

"Indeed. We need to make sure that one knows that they have their support at all times, regardless of the issues facing them! So how can you be over there Onee-sama when this is surely the case?!" asked Shirai as Mikoto frowned and began to open her mouth to talk.

"Hey, hey, hey! This is a complete violation of the rules. Headband-san, I said that you can only support your own opinion there and not counter others. Only we can do that otherwise it's going to get out of control." remarked Kamijou as the girls stopped and looked at him, realising that they were surely about to enter a large debate about it as they stepped back.

"Right, now that that's calmed down, I'll have my say. This will be the last thing before we decide which opinion to go for alright?" asked Kamijou as nods came from all around as the boy leaned back, resting his head against the wall.

"Alright, firstly Aogami, your point. While going in for the kiss does reassure as you said, it avoids the problem. You divert it by making the girl think of something more serious but in the end have you really done anything? No, you haven't respected her feelings, her heart and left it to the side in order to satisfy your own selfishness. Is that truly an aspect of the moe that you want? Are you really satisfied with placing only your feelings onto someone without the consideration of their own? While the guy might like the girl and vice versa, you're prioritising your own heart and leaving the girl to continue crying over the problem in the shadows. If anything, that is why I disagree with your opinion."

Kamijou turned his head towards Tsuchimikado's team and opened his mouth to speak as well.

"As for you Tsuchimikado, the same applies. You've used your own selfishness to prevent talking about the problem at hand. Do you really think that you can choose to divert the problem? This is something that someone that likes you wanted to talk to you about and you choose to ignore that, divert it to the side only to take things upon yourself? While the problem might be solved, a gap remains. A gap of trust. You did not listen towards the problem itself, instead you went off own your own and did not allow that trust to be formed between both parties. Is that really…truly the best option?"

Kamijou asked his question towards his friend as she spy went silent.

"As for me, I think I would have to listen. Someone out there has asked me about this problem that they are facing. They have taken out the time to talk to me about it. What else can I do? I want to make sure that that bond isn't something that is thrown away carelessly but something to be strengthened. Both of your choices do not allow that to form. Both of your choices don't allow trust to build between both of the parties. If I liked someone, I want that trust beyond anything else. The knowledge that I can put something in the hands of someone else and I won't be hated, judged or condemned for it. And the only way to do that is through listening I feel."

Kamijou let a small smile form onto his lips as he paused momentarily.

"How can I let anything else form? I think we should listen to the problem, even though we already know it. And I think we should do so merely because that in turn allows trust to form. The problem might not be solved yes….however in its place, trust stronger than anything else has formed and bonded both the guy and girl. We don't need aggressiveness or heroes once we have that trust."

Kamijou faced those that did not agree with him, grinning like an idiot as he finished what he wanted to say with one thing.

"Because once we have that trust, all we need is each other."

Kamijou let his remark sit in the air for a moment as the others that were inside the room considered what the boy had said, looking at their own hearts as they truly thought about what they thought about the best option.

The silence though was broken by a sniffle from one of the girls.

"Ui-Uiharu, are you crying!?" asked Saten with shock as the Judgment officer fell to her knees, wiping her eyes slightly.

"N-No, it's just…." Uiharu sniffled once more. "I didn't think of it….like that. I was a fool for thinking that I truly understood the hearts and minds of mature high schoolers!" She said within tears.

As a friend should, Saten abandoned the side of Aogami as she patted Uiharu on the shoulder, something that was matched by Mikoto while Shirai stood stunned. As for the guys though, they turned towards Kamijou with jealously on their faces.

"How the hell did you do that you bastard?" they asked with scorn. He had made a girl cry yes, however it was in support of him, something that they had never ever seen in their lives before.

"I'd like to address what you guys think of me before I answer." Kamijou played the straight man as Uiharu seemed to overcome her small outburst of emotion. She stood up suddenly and raced over towards Kamijou, placing her hands on his shoulders with an enthusiastic look on her face.

"I was a fool Kamijou-senpai! I didn't realise that the issue went so deeply! I hope that you can forgive me for my foolishness! I was caught up with knights and princesses that I didn't factor in the heart of every girl!" said Uiharu as Kamijou's mind went blank.

Although they had gotten into a fight over this…wasn't this taking it too seriously?

'U-Um, w-well…."

"In all seriousness though, I have a feeling that trust that forming between people is an important thing too. After all, as we are all friends, I know that I can trust all of you guys right?" Saten asked aloud towards her friends that were with her with a grin on her face. "And I think that apart from abandoning people and their problems, we really _do _need to listen. Hah, Kamijou-san, you have my vote there. I think that regarding this problem with this girl and guy, you have the most sensible suggestion."

Saten gave that comment as she stood by Uiharu, rubbing her back as she comforted her friend as she smiled towards the spiky haired boy that merely chuckled nervously in response. Saten turned around and faced the higher Level espers with a question on the tip of her tongue.

"Misaka-san? Shirai-san? What about you guys?"

"I'm…conflicted. While I do think that this option I made at the beginning is the right one, hearing the ape make a proper argument that convinces me is somewhat of a rarity. Onee-sama, what do you thin-O-Onee-sama!? Wha-wha-wha-wha!?"

Mikoto's attention was gathered as she looked towards Shirai, her face being caught in the light much better in this way, meaning that that everyone, even Tsuchimikado who was next to her got a good look at her face.

It was beet red, Mikoto rising her hands to meet it and feeling the warmth, hiding away from the light in an instant as she tried to calm her thoughts and emotions down. Wh-Why was she blushing so ferociously? She wasn't before so she felt as though there was only really one catalyst.

She turned towards the spiky haired boy that had been the only one that had not seen her blushing face (thank God for that) despite the grinning face of Saten while Uiharu was still wiping the tears from her eyes.

His words…he had stated that it was trust that allowed people to bond closer. Although they had a relationship that usually consisted of her trying to prove her own supremacy above him, there was something that had happened that had allowed her to form a different opinion of the boy.

After all, he had almost saved 10,000 of her Sisters using his idiotic mindset, something that she felt she could never repay no matter what.

But before he had faced Accelerator, he had approached her, telling her upfront that he knew of the Experiment that they had been a part of. Regardless of his options at that time, he had chosen to confront Mikoto with that information that he had instead of hiding it and pretending to know nothing. In a way, he had trusted her to act responsibly given that he knew that knowledge.

And when she had attacked him that night, she had trusted him to negate the attacks sent her way.

Although that night in August was one that had shown that trust at the very forefront that trust between Level 5 and Level 0 was definitely there. Even with Musujime Awaki, that boy had trusted her to help him save Shirai Kuroko and the Sisters once again. And once again she had complied.

Their bond was something that was rooted in trust, just as he had said.

But what else had he said?

_"Because once we have that trust, all we need is each other."_

Each…other.

All they needed was each other.

Each other.

Although she was surely misunderstanding and that idiot surely did not think of what he was saying in any regard, there was only one way that she could interpret it within herself, despite it being a clear misunderstanding.

Wasn't this…a confession!?

Mikoto felt her words catch in her throat as she tried to form some kind of denial however her heart was racing too much and she partially lost control of her power as sparks flew in all directions as she tried to keep her mind under control.

It was no use though as Saten made a comment even though Mikoto could no longer answer.

"Well as we can see, Misaka-san is clearly for Kamijou-san's idea. And what about you Shirai-san?" she asked, turning towards the Teleporter who was looking in pure shock at the outburst from the Level 5 that was clearly trying to put herself in her own control but unable to.

Shirai Kuroko's mouth was open and her eyes locked onto Mikoto and it was clear that she wasn't going to be answering anytime soon.

"Well, I guess that settles it doesn't it?" said Kamijou with a grin as he wondered what the hell was up with Mikoto. "I guess you guys have to tremble under the supremacy of my idea!"

Aogami though paid no mind to his words as all he was registering was the sight of two middle school girls in front of a high school boy chained to a wall, one of them crying and clearly showing off her feminine charm. Why? Why was this scene something that was only going to happen within a 10cm radius of Kamijou Touma?

It was clearly…

"Noooooooooooo! Even when arrested the Kami-yan Disease strikes again! Although it was mild, he stole the girls from us! He stole them! What is this sorcery!?" he shouted however it was Tsuchimikado that merely rubbed his wrists as he unlocked his handcuffs easily.

"Well then, the only thing that we can do in this case is input the choice right?" asked Tsuchimikado as both Uiharu and Shirai wondered how in the hell he had managed to slip through those handcuffs. They were supposed to be basically impossible to pick so how the hell had he done it?

Tsuchimikado though paid no mind to their stares as he brought out a small phone within his pocket, causing everyone to freeze upon seeing it.

Was he going to call the guy in question right now?! Here?

Minds froze as Tsuchimikado walked into the centre of the room sitting down in a way that meant that everyone could see what he was doing as he unlocked his phone.

Strangely though, he did not go into his contacts or phone function, instead clicking on another app that opened a screen that was opened towards a pink page lined with yellow and stars showing two options.

[Continue?]

[Back to Menu]

"Eh?" All the girls made that sound as Tsuchimikado picked the [Continue?] option, bringing up a page that seemed as though it was a screen shot of some sort of perfect scenery photograph.

The sunset was in pure view on the phone, marked only by the electronic sound of the wind swaying coming from the phone. This was accompanied with a sweet violin ballad that soothed the hearts of those that were looking at it.

In the centre of the screen was a girl, her features rather brought out to look cute however from the design, it was clear that she was a game character.

Wait….

A game character?

A voice came from the phone, high pitched and from a voice actor as the girl spoke.

"I have this problem you see…." The girl said through the phone, her speech showing in a dialogue box on the bottom of the screen, something that changed instantly towards showing three options.

[1. Kiss her.]

[2. Avoid the problem with the intention to solve from the shadows.]

[3. Listen to her.]

"And let's go with Option Threeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" shouted Tsuchimikado as both Aogami and Kamijou leaned forward within anticipation as they watched him click the option on the touchscreen.

He did so, releasing his finger almost instantly as the Option seemed to flash repeatedly for an instant before two things happened.

There was a light 'ping' sound as the Option that was chosen turned the colour green, the other Options falling off the screen with the Option chosen coming into the centre of the screen.

Clearly green meant that they were doing something right but what was it?

The pitter-patter of tears hitting the ground filled the air as all eyes of the girls turned towards Aogami who was crying but unable to wipe his tears.

"W-We did it…..WE DID IT!"

"We should have listened from the Master all along! Kami-yan, we were fools to not listen to you and your choices that got us this far nyah~!"

"Wait that was the last choice right? Does that mean…" asked Kamijou with anticipation as Tsuchimikado nodded.

"We finished it. We finished the route."

"We finished the route! W-We did iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!" Kamijou felt water come towards the corners of his eyes as water even rolled down Tsuchimikado's cheeks as the Delta Force were reduced to crying idiots, leaving the girls stunned in regards to what had just happened.

Route? Choice?

No.

It couldn't have been.

Was this really?

"Hang on just a minute!" yelled Saten in a panic. "Is this….a gal game?"

"Don't reduce it to that! It is an electronic masterpiece, filled with emotion and covering a multitude of genres, taking tropes and enhancing them or subverting them in a variety of routes that tugs at the heart strings! And one route is done! Done!" shouted Aogami.

"B-But…Are you saying that that important choice that you were deliberating didn't have to do with a real person but…..a game character?" asked Uiharu.

"Game character!? These people have life! Choices and consequences that aim to emulate and simulate proper characteristics of the Japanese lifestyle!" replied Tsuchimikado, offended.

"So…..are you saying that this choice that we just discussed….surrounding this guy and girl and the problem…was just a situation inside the game specific for the route? That the serious consideration that we put into this was over nothing more than a simple game?" asked Shirai, twitching slightly however it was the winner, the person that had supported Choice 3 under the game that responded back.

"Simple game? A Rubik's cube that constantly changes the solution would be a simple game compared to this! This has life! Depth and soul that one cannot find in the real world!" shouted Kamijou.

"Wait, I thought that you guys were really consulted about someone else's relationship problems here!" said Mikoto shocked and all heads turned towards her.

"Are you serious? Well aren't you an idiot." They all said at the same time as Mikoto hung her head, her eyes hidden by the shadows of her bangs but the Delta Force paid attention to other important matters.

"Wait Tsuchimikado! What route was this up to!? We must view the final screen and move onto the next one immediately! We must watch as their relationship expands and allows for the final kiss. If this is the final choice, I want to know what happens to the heroine I invested in!" said Aogami.

"Hah! I think that we are the only ones that ever got this far since the game's development! We had to make the right choice otherwise, we'd be set back for eternity! This permadeath function on the nature of relationships where you can't redo a route if you fail it is just brutal! Good thing that the Kami-yan Disease is applied towards all dimensions and girls. 2D, 3D, any dimension and any girls from dimensions nyah~! It's because of you and the choices you suggested that we've managed to complete all 3 routes successfully thus far! But it's not over yet nyah~!" shouted Tsuchimikado with glee.

"I would normally punch you for that however I'm just too happy to! Hooray! Hooray! Let's move onto the next one! We've clocked more than 250 hours on this and my grades have suffered but I don't care! Next one! Next one!" Kamijou shouted like a small child as Mikoto looked up towards Uiharu and Saten.

"You two. I think I have devised an appropriate punishment for these three by playing with our hearts and emotions like this." she said as she slowly clenched a fist.

"Agreed." It was rare for those two middle schoolers to think dangerous thoughts however they completely felt as though they had been manipulated in the worst way by the worst idiots. Even Uiharu had felt toyed with, by someone that she felt was mature and sensible.

"Shirai-san. Get the door please." said Uiharu.

Shirai instantly teleported towards the door. It was already closed however there was just one small adjustment that had to be done while the three idiots were oblivious towards her actions as Tsuchimikado moved towards unlocking their handcuffs so that they could watch the final scenes of the route.

And Shirai did one thing to that door while Misaka Mikoto, Uiharu Kazari and Saten Ruiko armed themselves against their enemy that had played with their hearts so.

Shirai Kuroko locked it.

* * *

The entire Anti-Skill station was silent as they looked towards a certain interrogation room, the only movement being the sight of someone opening the door adjacent to the interrogation room.

Given what most members of Anti-Skill members had seen, it was rare to see a face truly frightened however one just walked out of the room. His face was white as a sheet as if he had seen the ghost of his dead mother, something that had been the characteristic of everyone that had walked into the room and seen what was going on in the interrogation room through the one way mirror.

The screams of pain and death continued to come from the interrogation room, echoing throughout the station as everyone listened and trembled towards them as the Anti-Skill member spoke a few words, trembling as they came out.

"I….think there's a murder in progress in there."

The screams only served towards solidifying that opinion.

"MY HEROINEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!"

"MY PHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"SUCH MISFORTUNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Although they were all officers of the law, the members of Anti-Skill hearing that truly felt for the first time that the espers of Academy City could sometimes be cruel.

* * *

**And this is the end. Firstly, I hope that this met your opinions of something that served as a good story iwannaread000 in regards to having the Delta Force and the Railgun Gang (Railgang?) meet. While I was thinking of ways to do that, given what they get up to I felt that only having it in a prison like setting was the best. What did you think?**

**Importantly though were the choices. While the idiots were talking about a gal game the entire time, I had to make choices that would fit with each of the girls as well before reaching a catharsis and having them realise perhaps a better opinion in front of them. After some deliberation, I decided to have Aogami's 'kiss' option being supported by Shirai (obviously) and Saten. After all, she DOES appear to be aggressive and lift up Uiharu's skirt after all!**

**Tsuchimikado's was next. As the spy he is, I felt as though his option chosen seemed to personify him a little. Uiharu obviously chose this option because of her fairy tale romance that she seems to like so much and Mikoto as well due to how she solved the Sisters arc; behind the backs of everyone else and solving it in the shadows.**

**Touma of course was the loner in the beginning but chose the option that fit him the most. When discussing a problem, he will listen before jumping into it and perhaps do both at the same time and sometimes even forget about listening, merely following what he thinks to be right.**

**What did you think of this then? Which option would you have gone for? did they match the characters correctly? Are there any other that could have been picked better?**

**This turned out to be very long but something that I felt the Delta Force might really get into, fighting over a gal game choice and making others think that they were talking about real people due to their seriousness.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**The forgotten girl in this was….Uiharu? I'm not really too sure however for those that read the entire thing (I hoped you laughed), the next will hopefully be shorter.**


	11. The Danish Job

**The only thing that I can say is that I'm back. And with a vengeance.**

**My life is pretty much chaotic now. I'm got exams, more exams and I need some study time meaning that the time allocated to this is decreasing little by little which sucks. But I've endured and managed to get through to this.**

**I've started with this with my fabulous return in September because I want you guys to know that I'm set for updates for the next 10 weeks! Well 9 if you include this chapter. Meaning that for the next few weeks, I hope that you will enjoy what is to come for both the chapters of Between the Lines and A Certain Unknown Level 0. I'll be alternating between the two so for those that read this; you are the only ones that know what is happening with the progress of both projects!**

**I probably won't update for Christmas as a result of this chaos but we'll see. I will update when Heavy Object the anime comes out though! I'm soooooooooooooooooo excited for another Kamachi work so as I wait (and wait and wait and wait) for Index III, I'll look forward to Heavy Object in the meantime. I hope you guys look forward to this project of mine though (and anything else you do) and wait to see what happens in the writing machine. And the anime scene too!**

**Yet I just felt like starting with this first because well, reasons!**

**But you know what?**

**I've always had this feeling as though alternating between requests and my own thoughts needs to be done every now and then. Firstly, I hope that this is something that none of you are against as it sort of freshens things up and keeps people guessing about whether the next one is a request or not.**

**First thing to say, this is a new idea dreamed up by me. I won't go into it too much however I guess the only thing that I have to consider is the genre of the story. I've written it as Humour/Friendship but there are always some aspects of Romance here. I've also got some darker stories in the future as well so I have no idea what to think. I suppose for ACUL0, the choice of genre as Mystery/Humour is a bit odd too. I guess some other authors have got it better than me for choosing appropriate genres.**

**Whatever. That's just my thoughts on my own strange mindset. Potatoes.**

**Naturally before we begin , I'd like to thank my beta reader PokeRescue18. With everything flying around in life for the both of us, I really want to thank him for his work.**

**And you, the reader. For those that read this for fun, thanks. For pleasure, thanks. I hope that you look forward to this and for those awaiting their requests, I hope that you also enjoy what is to come for you as well.**

**But I'm back and once again, from both BTL and ACUL0, there is only thing that I ask you to do! From me:**

**Enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

The Protocol Surrounding Elopement. _Lack_Of_Knowledge._

Their feet tumbled through the snow despite the fact that they knew that there was no way to actually escape the threat that was behind them. However that hopelessness was thrown out of their minds as they made their way through the white wonderland surrounding them from all sides.

"Hurry up! We don't have much time in the first place!"

"Do you think that you have the right in the first place to be bossing me around!?"

"As far as I'm concerned, you've already lost – Get down!"

Kamijou Touma tackled Othinus to the ground as he shivered upon making contact with the snow beneath him before the Magic God could even make a sound.

The next second though, her vision was blotted out with the burning sensation upon her retina of orange as what could only be described as instant death sailed over her head. She leaned her head backwards and narrowed her one eye as she looked at what were happening only metres away.

Misaka Mikoto, the Railgun of Academy City and the #3 Level 5 was currently fighting numerous amounts of perhaps the most technologically advanced military machines in existence.

FIVE_Over Modelcase_"RAILGUN".

Mikoto used her magnetism to latch onto one of the FIVE_Over models, creating an iron sand sword within her grip as she used it to slice through the metal of the enemy, sending one the units tumbling to the snowy ground beneath her feet.

"Shit, it's still got its sights on us! Othinus, get up and do it now!"

Kamijou yelled at the top of his lungs as he grabbed Othinus's hand from where he had tackled her to the ground, bringing her to her feet and practically dragging her through the snow despite the wounds that he had sustained.

Othinus knew exactly what was going on, fully aware of her surroundings and what was happening both to the human that she had put through hell and herself as well.

They were in Denmark, halfway across the world from Tokyo Bay and Sargasso where they had encountered each other as arch enemies, only to leave as trusted allies.

Here they were, with the both of them against the world, Kamijou having been ripped from all forms of connection that had allowed him to survive in the world of both Magic and Science.

He had just faced Mikoto herself and fallen unconscious however now that that battle was over and done with, with the two residents of Academy City coming to some sort of conclusion around their battle, Kamijou and Othinus were again on the run from the world, their feet dragging through the snowy ground of Denmark that seemed to want to pull them back into its cold embrace.

One of the FIVE_Over models aimed the massive cannon on its back towards the two of them, moving its praying mantis like body downwards in order to get a better shot. Kamijou gritted his teeth upon looking back as to why Othinus was moving so slower and seeing the sight of that weapon aiming to fire.

"Misakaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Kamijou yelled at the top of his lungs as he threw Othinus to the ground again and stood in front of her, shoving his right hand in front of himself as he stood among the windy blizzard blowing through the air.

Misaka Mikoto immediately heard his shout as she continued her fight against the FIVE_Overs, realising instantly that the moment that once the FIVE_Over fired its cannon towards the both of them, Kamijou Touma and Othinus were dead.

However the one thing that the hunk of metal that was Academy City technology did not realise was the worth in the action that Kamijou was taking right now, with his right hand extended in front of him.

She reached into her skirt, bringing out a small coin that she held at the tip of her thumb as she unleashed her ultimate technique without hesitation.

The true Railgun unleashed her power, sending the projectile through the air where it pierced through the FIVE_Over like butter, only to continue its trek through the Denmark landscape and smash itself into the boy's right hand.

Imagine Breaker took effect as the wind from the blast sent snow flying in all directions behind Kamijou as he lowered his right hand, watching the FIVE_Over fall to the ground as he immediately turned and ran towards Othinus.

"Thanks Misaka! I owe you one!"

Kamijou did not even take the time to think about what he was saying whatsoever as he did not spare a moment to see Mikoto's blushing face in response as he raced towards where Othinus was, taking her by the hand.

"Othinus! Can you move?" he asked her as the God merely winced at the touch of the boy's hand.

"I can. However Ollerus's Fairy Spell is definitely starting to slow my movements slightly." she remarked honestly as Kamijou swore.

"This isn't good then. We need a vehicle and fast."

"A vehicle?" asked Othinus. "How about one of those?" She pointed in a certain direction as Kamijou matched where she was looking, his expression going blank as soon as he saw what she was looking at.

"No. No way. There is no way that I am doing that."

"Its operator fled as soon as Academy City machines attacked. I know how to operate one myself."

"That's not the issue! I am not stealing one of those! I'd rather walk instead of placing myself in there!" shouted Kamijou towards the Magic God as she rose and leaned onto Kamijou for support as she looked at him in her one good eye.

"It's another 50 kilometres to Fredericia. Are you planning on walking there by foot or hitchhiking? With everything that is happening do you really think that we have the luxury of options here human?" Othinus gave her rationale as the spirit of the boy broke instantly as he felt as though he was going to start crying soon but she paid it no mind.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…"

"Stop being on the edge of tears all the time! You chose to do this so we have to commandeer that vehicle immediately!" she said.

Kamijou sniffled a little bit as he looked at the distance between them and their target as he looked towards the person that he had chosen to protect against the world. He steeled himself as he realised the truth behind Othinus's words and nodded.

"You're right…. If there's no other way, then there's nothing that we can do. Sorry Othinus but to get the furthest away then I need to do this!" shouted Kamijou as he acted.

"Huh? What are you – waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!?" Othinus let out that cry however not because she had been attacked but rather because Kamijou Touma had carelessly lifted her up.

With his left arm he supported the area under her knees and with his right arm, supporting her head where she rested it. She struggled and felt her face go slightly warm despite not feeling the cold.

The only reason for such was probably because of the position that she was being held in by the boy.

And that was purely because she was being carried bridal style.

"H-Hang on there, what exactly is this supposed to mean?" asked Othinus, trying to sound angry however unable to keep the small edges of a smile forming on her face. Kamijou though paid it no mind as he looked forward towards his goal and pressed Othinus closed towards his chest as he broke into a run through the Danish snow.

Othinus saw Mikoto stand stunned as she watched how the boy was carrying her, almost getting hit by a stray railgun from one of the FIVE_Overs as a result, her lack of movement clearly being from jealously as Othinus felt herself feeling both annoyed and somewhat pleased at the action that the boy had taken.

"I said I was sorry! It's the best way so don't think that there's anything overly suggestive about this!" pleaded Kamijou as Othinus felt her mood go sour.

"O-Overly suggestive? Don't think that my thoughts were heading in that direction at all human!" spat out Othinus as she felt the smile on her face fall instantly due to the truth behind the boy's actions.

"Huh? Did part of Misaka rub off on you or something there Othinus?" asked Kamijou.

"I'm going to punch you in the face. You have had prior warning."

"Really? Is that s-bfffhf!?" Kamijou received a punch to the face as promised as he continued the trek through the snow, Othinus silent now as she moved a hand towards the covered chest of the boy that was carrying her through the Danish snow.

Here they both were. Just the two of them against the world and it seemed as though it was clear to her that the only one that had chosen to stay by her side throughout this entire ordeal was someone that clearly had nothing to gain from all of this.

He wasn't doing this for money. He wasn't doing this because it benefitted him in anyway.

He was merely doing this because there was no way that he could stand watching the girl knows as the Magic God Othinus die at the hands of those that wanted peace.

Had she expected such? No, had she even deserved such? After everything that she had placed him through, did she even remotely think that he would save her?

The answer was surely 'no' however, here they both were.

Kamijou Touma trekking through the snow treating Othinus like a fragile princess.

And Othinus pressing against the chest of her hero while silently rubbing her hand, unnoticed by Kamijou, against his chest. Despite everything that she had become, despite everything that had occurred between them, he had stood by her.

He had refused to run and it was now too late for him to flee from the circumstances. He was stuck in this hell, unbroken and strong as he held Othinus closer towards him. They both had been through so much and right now, for that Magic God, it didn't matter where they were or who was chasing them.

They had each other, the only other person that truly understood them with them.

Was there nothing in truth that Othinus could say as a way to express what she was feeling? Could it even be put into words the sensation that trickled against her heart?

She looked up towards the boy who had gone through Denmark in search of Othinus's one remaining eye, focused and prepared for what was to come next.

But as he did so, was he really prepared for the next thing that had to be said to come from Othinus herself?

The Magic God did not care as she opened her mouth within his arms as she tried to find the proper words to describe the sensation that lay within her own heart.

"Human, I-"

"We're here. Ride's over Othinus." remarked Kamijou as he set Othinus onto the ground as the two of them stood in front of their destination.

The tank that had been abandoned by the Americans stood in front of them, the barrel pointed in the direction of Mikoto and the FIVE_Overs however without a driver, it was basically useless; a hunk of metal that was going nowhere.

"Are you sure you know how to drive one of these things?" asked Kamijou sceptically as he turned towards Othinus as he frowned. There was something wrong with her face, her face pulled into an expression that seemed as though she were pouting; as if something had escaped her that she thought was hers.

"Othinus?"

"Yes? What, of course I can pilot this thing. Who in the world do you think I am?" spat out Othinus as the expression that was on her face disappeared as if it had never been there in the first place. He must have imagined it as Othinus looked up towards the tank's body as she reached for the metal frame.

She tried to get a proper grip on the metal form however slipped and fell into the snow, trying once again in order to get higher however she could not manage to do so with so little grip in her fingers and her weakened body.

"Heh. It seems as though even gods have trouble doing something humans do." remarked Kamijou as Othinus glared towards him.

"Shut up and help me up here. We need to get moving and do it now. Otherwise, we'll just be stuck here forever." she stated as she tried to get up once again however slid down as Kamijou sighed, moving towards the side of the tank in order to climb it and reached the top of it in order to climb into the top hatch.

"Hang on, what are you doing?" Othinus frowned whilst asking her question as Kamijou frowned as well.

"What are you asking? I'm going to lift you up into the tank."

"I refuse. I want to go first."

"Do we really have time to be discussing as something as stupid as who goes first?!" Although Kamijou let out that comment, it was clear that Othinus's pride as a God was at stake. Kamijou was made to climb back down and assist her as she tried to climb up into the tank first as Kamijou was forced to support her petite butt as she tried to climb on although with a reddened face.

"O-Othi-chan, I really think that maybe we should have purchased that underwear for you!" he let that comment while touching her bare skin as Othinus kicked him in the face.

"St-Stop staring then human! What you're doing goes past adultery and into blasphemy!" she said at the top of her voice however no matter how much Kamijou tried, the hormonal teenager within him kept his eyes on the sight of Othinus's behind.

While he had the self-control to not actually act on any sexual provocation that the world sent his way, he was still a healthy high school boy that had those kinds of thoughts.

"I-I can't help it! What with all you magicians wearing next to nothing, why is that I have to suffer for your choice of wardrobe?" Kamijou complained as Othinus made it up to the top of the tank as Kamijou followed close behind as the two of them looked into the hatch that was below.

Darkness was there however there was a tiny light as Kamijou got a good look at the section that was likely the firing mechanism for the massive barrel that was pointing in the direction of the FIVE_Overs.

"Alright, this is what you need to get. There should be a headset down there, standard American model for communications. Get it for me and we can get you driving this thing within an instant despite your limited intelligence." commanded Othinus.

"Hang on there, you really expect me, a normal high school boy, to understand anything you say when you look at a tank's controls and tell me what to do? It will be all French to me! Can't you do it? This is too much for someone that can't even roller skate!" cried Kamijou as Othinus gave him a pitiful look.

"You can't roller skate?"

"I don't want to hear that from someone that formed a Segway whenever I was running for my life in those endless hells to match my speed." retorted Kamijou as Othinus slowly got into the tank as she finally realised that Kamijou was unlikely going to understand what she was saying.

"No, it's just that I'm pretty sure that I put you in a world where the American military was the most prominent force with Academy City espers being hunted by everyone. I seem to remember you taking control of a tank then to protect a complete stranger, only for a self-detonation device to go off and engulf you." remarked Othinus, not matching the eyes of the boy above her.

Why had she said that?

While she always felt as though what she said could be remarked as something that would be passed off by the boy as 'something Othinus would say', he truly had died within that world that she spoke of. His boy had burned and he hadn't even had the chance to scream. How much pain would that have entailed?

She could fathom it however she had caused that very pain upon the boy that was above her. She had done that and now she was stating it as it was nothing more than a detail. As someone that had endured all of that was that fair to him as a person? No, as someone who had chosen to stand up for her despite those worlds?

She remembered the worlds that she had put him in and the cruelty she had shown him while it was likely that he did not remember all of the worlds. Whether it be because of the massive time that he had spent there meaning that some memories were lost as more took their place or whether he was suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder where some of the memories were suppressed (Othinus definitely felt as though this was the case), he would never remember them all.

Doing so would surely reveal that they had definitely been enemies hell bent on defeating the other.

"Huh? I seem to remember something like that. Since when do tanks have self-destruct functions anyway? I felt that world was cheating to be honest."

Kamijou remarked offhand as if the subject in question had nothing to do with him as Othinus looked up at him with a startled look.

Had he really brushed off that world like it was nothing? When she had created it to break him? How could he smile and say that when he had truly suffered?

"? What is it Othinus?" asked Kamijou as the God shook her head, climbing down and reaching the bottom of the tank as she searched and found the headset that she was talking about. She took two, handing one to Kamijou where he was sitting on the ladder descending into the interior of the tank from the top of it.

He put it in his ear as Othinus tested the headset itself, looking towards the controls. Numerous levels and switches were located all over the place as she pointed to a number of the levers.

"Alright. First things first, do NOT touch this trigger here. Understand? I won't have you treat it as misfortune. If you touch it then we are doomed." declared Othinus confidently as Kamijou frowned and scratched his head.

"Oh? And what exactly does that one do?" asked Kamijou in wonder as Othinus merely sighed, hoping that a practical demonstration would reveal the threat better than words.

"This."

She pulled the trigger and the tank fired a shell 155mm in diameter through the air where it slammed into the side of one of the FIVE_Overs that had exposed one of its railgun cannons, only for the machine to explode as the railgun did not have a perfect path to travel down.

Mikoto, who had been the one that it had been aiming at went pale as stared at the tank that had fired while its occupants, well the male one, truly went white in the face as he understood that he was not to touch the trigger.

"U-Understood sensei."

"Right. Of course the generation 3.5 tanks that these are generally have an auto-reload function which is somewhat regarded as the pinnacle of technology. Hmph. Compared to Academy City, an auto-reload function for a tank is child's play. So don't touch that trigger! Anyway, for movement, see this lever? This is the shift lever. While that changes the speed, you want to note the tread levers. These control the overall movement of the tank itself but the shift lever can be put into neutral. I don't think that we need to focus too much on direction as long as you understand the basic controls for the tread levers."

Kamijou nodded and put a finger underneath his chin as she spoke, Othinus looking back up towards him as he seemed to understand.

"Got it?" she asked.

"I guess. Could you repeat a certain part though? Don't get angry when I say what it is though." asked Kamijou lightly as Othinus let out a sigh in response, although hiding the partial smile on her face.

"What part do you want me to start from again? Turning the shift lever into neutral? Controls of tread levers?"

"Not really. Could you start from 'auto-reload function'?" he asked.

"That was the beginning you complete ignoramus!"

"Well after you fire a tank shell, of course I'm going to be rattled! You think that this Kamijou-san sees tanks being fired every day?" yelled Kamijou back towards her as she groaned and pushed past Kamijou who was on the ladder as she began to climb out of the tank. Kamijou followed behind her as they both stuck their heads outside the tank as Othinus looked in the direction that they were going to be travelling.

She pointed in that direction as she spoke.

"Alright, see that horizon? We're going to be travelling in that direction so you need to move the barrel of the tank in that direction while moving the tread levers." she explained as Kamijou nodded, understanding a bit better as he wasn't rattled by the firing of the tank as he turned in the direction that they had come in.

His face immediately went pale as he grabbed Othinus by the shoulder and leg. Before she could even protest, she was thrown out of the tank, only hearing the sound of the boy yelling.

"Get out of here Othinus!"

She fell onto the cold snow as she watched the boy fall further into the tank as a result of him throwing Othinus upwards, completely lacking in comprehension of why he had done that however her question was answered by the sight of the railgun shooting through the air where she had just been.

"Biometric scan results: lack of failure to eliminate target. Prioritising ease of attack towards target currently constrained. Commencing elimination of target known as Kamijou Touma."

A feminine voice that sounded completely cold resounded through the air as Othinus looked behind her, the direction that they had come in as she saw the sight of one of the FIVE_Overs pointing its massive Gatling gun-like barrel towards the American tank. It was clear what would happen to the tank once it fired and Othinus screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Human! Get out of there and do it now! Get out!"

Kamijou heard her voice from inside the tank, feeling the almost freezing metal against his face as he looked up and saw the rouge FIVE_Over pointing its barrel towards him and moving closer in order to ensure a complete kill from point blank range.

Even as an amateur, Kamijou could tell that there was no way that he was going to survive if the tank fired given his current state.

But what could he do in response to a FIVE_Over? He had no weapons whatsoever as his enemy was one of the more impressive units that Academy City had developed. Where was he going to get a weapon on such short notice?

Wait...a weapon?

Kamijou Touma almost face palmed as he forgot where he was as he crawled along the floor of the tank and grabbed one of the handles, recalling something that Othinus had said only moments before.

_"Of course the generation 3.5 tanks that these are generally have an auto-reload function which is somewhat regarded as the pinnacle of technology."_

An auto-reload function of a shell that had already been fired.

There was only one thing that Kamijou could do in response as his fingers found the trigger of the tank and pulled on it frantically without even bothering to aim as the FIVE_Over approached a distance that analysis of the environment felt was safe enough to ensure a kill as it fired instantly.

The tank shell sailed through the air, hitting its target however did not stop the firing of the FIVE_Over itself.

That did not mean instant death though as the tank shell hit the cannon that was resting on the back of the massive machine, the shell bursting apart in an instant and spreading something that lay inside the shell itself.

Given their enemy was a Magic God accompanied by a resident of Academy City, paranoia among the forces of America must have thought that the normal high school boy that was Kamijou Touma was hiding some sort of secret mechanical weapon in his arsenal.

If that was the case, then the counter for something that ran on electricity and signals was simple; evident in what was held within the tank shell itself.

Chaff Seeds floated in the air as soon as the tank shell burst apart, the close proximity that they were to the FIVE_Over with the ventilation of the large unit meaning that they were sucked into the machine itself. The electromagnetic jamming that they conducted as a whole short circuited the large machine as the Americans had thought it would have done with any electronic device as the firing of the railguns were disturbed greatly and rendering it useless.

Internally, the circuits of the machine and the AI unit that were controlling it went into chaos, sending signals that contradicted all of its orders everywhere. As a result of what was likely interpreted as an attempt to gather technology that only belonged in Academy City and not the rest of the world, the FIVE_Over unit only had one response to prevent the leak of technology.

A railgun was fired internally towards all of its circuits, frying every single one of them as the entire unit self-destructed in order to protect the technological marvel that it was.

Naturally, given the close proximity towards the enemy that had fired the shot, the tank was not something that escaped unscathed.

The flames and shockwave of the explosion literally threw the tank into the air, turning it upside down where it landed in the snow. It creaked ominously as it fell to the side, the FIVE_Over being reduced to nothing but dust due to its destruction as the chaos that was happening here was not registered by the Level 5 esper fighting the other FIVE_Overs.

Instead, the only person to witness what had just happened was the person that had been saved from such a fate.

Othinus felt herself staring at the tank that had dented beyond belief, her breathing stopping completely as she felt it extremely hard to muster the will to even stand.

Explosions were not like movies where a character could be standing only metres away from an exploding bomb, only to survive and walk away. Explosions themselves sent shockwaves through the air and the closer one was to it, the more chance of there being the destruction of internal organs due to the proximity towards the bomb.

Naturally, the further people were away from a bomb and whether they were in a state of shock to forcibly restart those destroyed organs was a different matter however as far as Othinus could see it, there was no way of surviving what she had just seen.

The tank had been completely engulfed in flames before being lifted from the shockwave itself before landing on the ground.

Assuming that someone managed to survive the shockwave damage, then the damage received from the fall was something that was hardly something one would walk away from.

Only one reality remained for the person that had thrown Othinus out of the tank in order to save her life and allow her to continue on.

"No…."

Othinus felt her lip tremble as she looked at the burning tank in front of her, finding movement in her legs as she was the only one to realise what was happening to the person inside as the Level 5 esper in the distance was still engaging in the Academy City units, not paying attention to what was happening here.

Othinus moved forward, noting the trembling in her hands. She had lost all sense of cold so she was not shaking in response to the chilly weather. Her heart beat erratically as she wished for this to be nothing more than a dream that she had to wake up from.

"It…can't be."

She denied it.

Because there was nothing else that she could do.

"You can't do this human….you can't. You can't!"

Othinus yelled in the snowy plain in Denmark as she found all strength leave her legs, forcing her to crawl towards the burning tank that was in the distance.

"You promised. You said that you would face the entire world, to protect me! You promised!" She shouted as she crawled, gripping the snow underneath her hand as she clenched her fist, burying her face into the harsh snow.

There was a wet sensation around her eye however Othinus had lost all capability to generate tears at this point. Was that the snow around her eye? Or was that truly something that she felt that she had lost; a tear that was one of the first of many to come?

"You….can't leave me."

Her voice was nothing more than a whimper as she struggled to lift her head.

It was over.

She had lost everything.

She had lost her powers, the one person that had understood her and soon, even her life as a Magic God that had truly wanted someone by her side.

But that was all gone.

Othinus closed her one good eye, letting the sensation of the destruction of the Fairy Spell of Ollerus taking over her –

"…..*Cough*."

Her eye shot open instantly as she slowly moved her head in the snow towards the sound of the voice.

"*Cough* *cough* *cough* Sh…*cough*….it."

"That's….."

A figure climbed out of the burning tank, clearly damaged all over with burns covering his arms, small singes in his spiky hair as he crawled out of the tank. Instantly the burns were cooled by the snow however the boy clearly had internal injuries.

He coughed one, twice, three times before he stopped and threw up, blood streaming from his mouth as he continued coughing. He gripped the snow within his own hand and forced his body to endure the pain he was feeling as he slowly…

Slowly…

Slowly…

Rose.

"….impossible."

Othinus let out her remark as Kamijou Touma looked around where he was, seeing Othinus on the ground and completely forgot about his own wounds as he raced towards her. He tripped in the snow due to his groggy movements however stood up once again and raced towards her fallen form, grabbing her by the shoulders.

"Othi…Othinus! Shit, come on, we have to get moving! I know you want to rest but we don't have time here! I know it's not her fault but Misaka might miss another one of the FIVE-Overs so we have no time to rest!" Kamijou cried out towards her however Othinus paid no mind to it as she used her strength in her arms to slowly drag herself back first into the snow with Kamijou still holding onto her shoulders.

Normally such a thing was hardly going to cause the boy to fall forward however he must have suffered more damage that he thought as he fell forward as well; catching himself as he noticed the position he was in, red going to his face instantly.

Othinus though hardly cared for his opinion on the situation that they were in, with Kamijou on top of her with the only thing preventing him from falling on top of her being his arms that supported his weight. Othinus was below him in the snow as she instantly made up her mind.

The events of today had been nothing more than rooted in her own selfishness. Kamijou had allowed that as there was nothing more that he could do to prevent her from exercising her given right to such.

But now the relief that filled her was something that only made her want to exercise that right even more forcefully with her underneath the body of the boy that had declared that he would save her even if it meant fighting the entire world.

And he had done that, only to protect the life and smile of a single girl.

He had been thrown across the world from Tokyo Bay and Sargasso to Denmark.

He had faced the #1 esper of Academy City.

He had faced the Roman Catholic Church and their Fish of the Supper spell.

He had faced the Russian Orthodox Church and their Seven Deadly Sins Spell.

He had faced the combined forces of a Princess of the United Kingdom, a former and current Saint and the leader of the Knights of England.

He had faced the Dvergr of GREMLIN.

He had faced the forces of America and the US President himself.

He had faced the FIVE_Overs of Academy City.

He had faced the #3 esper of Academy City.

He had done all of those things, taking his mere words into his actions and driving himself forward despite the destruction that his body was surely facing.

And there were moments throughout those fights where Othinus was reduced to becoming a mere bystander, where she truly felt as though it had ended and the one that had been determined to save her had lost.

But he had still got up and returned.

Othinus acted swiftly, wrapping her arms around Kamijou's neck where she lay in the snow and brought herself up so that she rose and pulled him into an embrace. Her witch's hat pressed lightly against the boy's face and he felt the warmth of her skin and the sensation of her scent tickling his nose.

"O-Othi-"

"Don't speak." She said softly as Kamijou shut his mouth.

Othinus said nothing as she rubbed the side of her head against the boy's face, noting that although she had lost her sense of cold so it was not possible for her to feel real warmth in this chilly wasteland.

However right now, a small smile rose to her face as she definitely and truly felt something as she pressed up against the boy; something more pleasing than the warmth that she wanted to receive.

And once again, she made a truly selfish request.

"Please….don't leave me."

Her voice was soft and almost pleading, something that was hardly suitable for a god but she cared not one iota. She merely wanted to express her one wish to the world that she had brought back.

She felt a grip on her shoulders as something forced her back into the snow, seeing blue eyes that stared back at her as Kamijou simply gave his response.

"Never. It's us against the world Othinus. And I will always be by your side."

Before she could say anything, he forced himself up, spitting on the ground. Othinus noted the red colour of the substance that came from his mouth as he grinned despite everything, Othinus watching that idiotic face in pure amazement.

How could he smile like that given what he was facing?

She surely wondered that as Kamijou held out his right hand, offering it to the girl that could barely stand as he maintained that expression on his face.

"So there is no time to waste. We have a tank to steal."

That one statement brought the rarest of open smiles on the girl's face that she would be willing to show anyone as she grabbed that hand in front of her. And once again, that warmth that she should not have been able to feel spread through her as she rose to her feet.

She stumbled, or at least it looked like she did as Kamijou caught her, allowing her to lean against him. It was clear that he thought that she was slowly losing her mobility however that was not it at all as the boy covered her shoulder with his arm and supported her while stepping forward himself. His gaze was focused straightforward and as such did not notice the gaze directed towards him.

The gaze of the Magic God that pressed her cold hand against the boy's as once again that warmth filled her body.

Although the world was against them, Othinus did not feel afraid whatsoever.

As long as she had this boy next to her then she felt that there was nothing she had to fear from the world around her even if it pressed at her from all sides. Their understanding allowed for that to the fullest and she recognised that perfectly.

But maybe it came with something a little extra.

But, as the two of them walked through the blizzard of Denmark towards the tank in the distance, Othinus truly felt that such a side effect involving the boy named Kamijou Touma not that bad.

Even a God could accept it for now.

* * *

**And this is the end!**

**If you look towards the title, the theme of this was elopement. While after the NT 10 hype, there were a few stories surrounding Othinus and Touma (OTP – Othinus Touma Pairing), those seemed to have slowly petered out. I have no idea why but there we go. So I decided to have a little go.**

**While in the novel itself, we're given the fights (and there is nothing wrong with that), the journey from one end of Denmark to another gives rise to a number of situations that can arise from the two of them wherever they go. I mean, how exactly did they get onto all of the vehicles that allowed them to hitchhike given Touma's lack of knowledge regarding the language? These kinds of questions arise and I thought that I might address it in the form of the tank that they steal.**

**Although it gets driven over a cliff in the end, I felt as though it was the perfect chance to show the dire situation in Denmark that Kamachi gave us as well as the fact that there is truly something that binds both Othinus and Touma. After all, despite everything, Touma really did challenge the world to save one girl. While that might be the Touman speaking, it is not something to laugh at here.**

**Thus there was the connection shown here. I hope that you liked it and the compromising situations that Touma and Othinus find themselves in in their escape from the world.**

**I hope you enjoyed it fully.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**Although he might consider himself a normal high school boy, Touma managed to destroy a FIVE_Over, survived a tank flipping over after something exploded in front of him, only to stand up and keep going. He's either delusional or has a lot of Plot Armour going for him here. Whatever though. We don't mind.**

**One week down. I hope you look forward to my next update.**

**I hope I haven't lost my touch and feel for the series after so long while adding my personal flavour. What do you think?**


	12. The Daily Dose of Misfortune

**And like I've always promised, here we are with the requests!**

**As you can see, this was a double update, simply because I did not update last week and keeping this here keeps in line with the schedule of releases that I have. So for those that were stressing out about it, thank you for waiting. The 'set' release schedule should be the same as I already said before!**

**The major part with this project is that I have to juggle between ideas from me and ideas from you. If you end up looking at the reviews, you might end up picking ideas from them and thinking "I want to see that!". But then the occasional original idea from me ends up being quite popular; example Chapter 3 and its potential for crossovers and Chapter 9 and the other characters that can be involved.**

**So in the end, the alternating between original ideas from me and the occasional ideas from you might be happening every now and then. I hope then that you don't mind me going back and forth between my ideas and yours then.**

**But enough from that, we have a request to meet!**

**This request was from dragon rider who asked:**

Actually, you technically mentioned Touma when you mentioned the misfortune. Anyway neat chapter, though I've never read the side stories. And don't worry i understand, i just thought that i would make a suggestion too. Speaking of which, related to my last review, the part about Touma and the police and the donuts, you think you could do a chapter of that incident? I'm really curious what Touma did to bring that kind of bad luck.

**Right! Well here it is as you asked for. Out of the suggestions that you made dragon rider, this sort of followed on so this is something that I hope you enjoy. For those that can't remember what this refers to, it refers back to the AN back in Chapter 7 where I said:**

Naturally, Itsuwa managed to get the groceries misfortune free. In other news, halfway across the world there were reports of a large ruckus in Academy City involving a spiky-haired boy, a petrol station's locked bathroom and a large amount of donuts.

**There we go! So for you guys, you don't have to go back and check it for the details.**

**But before we start, I'd once again like to thank the two major people in this project. The first is of course PokeRescue18 with all of his dedication towards this project. Thanks so much man.**

**And for you as well, the reader. Without you guys, I doubt that the ideas that I had would end up going into 11 chapters! I felt as though after my USB data was deleted that the one-shots were something fun to do but who would have thought it would extend? I hope that you enjoy this though.**

**AND ONE MORE THING! While I'm getting all of these thanks and notes about the project that I've been given, the thing is, these new request stories come from the head of someone else. In this sense, I guess I have to thank the previous reviewers of Guest, ScareCrowFM, Otaku97, Agent Nine , iwannaread000 and dragon rider, especially you for this chapter idea! After all, some of these stories were suggested by you guys so it is because of you that they came up! Of course there were others that contributed with reviews, favouriting and following but I feel as though those that felt like shouting out get thanks as well, don't you think? So thank those guys, you who read this!**

**And now that that has ended….**

**Enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

A Tough Internship. _Files_Too_LARGE:_Entry_12985._

Kihara.

The name itself brought fear towards those who heard and understood what it meant. Their utilisation of science in such twisted ways turned something that normal people wanted to learn about and changed its form in such a way that made those normal people feel sick in the stomach and truly made them question their path.

It could be said that 'Science doesn't kill people. Kiharas do'. In a sense, this statement truly emphasised the nature of what a Kihara was. They took something that was a concept and through experiments and having a complete disregard of life, they extinguished the flame of life as if it was something that they had been born to do.

But at the same time, there were those that did not go down the path of destroying lives through the use of science.

Kihara Kagun, a person who had invested heavily in the science of near-death research was a perfect example. He was not an evil person as what a Kihara had been pictured to have been even though he was heavily rooted in using science to its fullest extent.

Kihara Kagun though was not the only exception. There were truly a number of Kiharas that were out there that focused their areas of specialisation of science upon places that did not harm others despite being aware of the intricate nature of the world around them and how science could be used in a nefarious manner.

"Are you serious?"

You looked at your boss with a look of complete shock as you once again glanced at the room that you were standing in front of.

"You want me…to clean out this?"

"Ask Aleister. He's the one that's been using UNDER_LINE to accumulate all of these reports for me. As a Kihara, my work is never done but to be honest, sorting through all of these files is a pain even for me. Thus I given it to you, a scrub, Intern-chan. Feel proud in that you're getting paid 900 Yen an hour for this."

The Kihara that spoke to you was not one of those exceptions though and through a number of unfortunate circumstances, an acquaintanceship had been formed with that Kihara and you. While that did have a number of perks such as free reign of practically any facility within your home of Academy City, at the same time it did have its disadvantages.

This being one of them.

(I swear that 900 Yen an hour is under the minimum wage you damn bastard!)

You had that thought however managed to give a stiff smile regarding what it was that was said to you.

"Are you even sure about what you told me before though? That ALL of these files….are related around the same person?" You asked that question as you looked back towards the room in question.

To be honest, you couldn't think of anything else to say about it but HUGE. The room itself was at least as large as two CEO offices for those hotshots in District 1 yet there was no sight of a floor in sight as manila coloured files littered the floor. Filing cabinets were located on the walls however even those that had those same manila coloured files stacked to the top of the room before they seemed to overflow and join the pile on the floor.

And you…were required to clean _this_?!

900 Yen an hour, as a student of Academy City, was not worth this.

"Yep. As a Kihara studying one of the social sciences surrounding economics, you could say that my role in the 'evil' of the Dark Side is somewhat limited but at the same time just as bad. After all, someone had to fund things like the Dark May Project, Radio Noise and the Level 6 Shift…And my expertise of social sciences surrounding things like economics is the perfect backdrop for choosing profitable projects. Assessing cost and benefits of projects, where to divert resources, the best options to choose from, all of these things go through me first. Even the Parameter List was made with my assessment of each individual esper. Would you like to know your ranking in that Intern-chan?"

The Kihara spoke with a light heartened tone as you felt your heart drop into the pit of your stomach.

This acquaintanceship….the knowledge of Projects such as the Level 6 Shift and what happened with those clones was definitely one of the disadvantages of knowing this Kihara. Things that you would have preferred not knowing were discussed with you without a care of what you thought or the lives of those involved and it truly made you clench your fists in anger.

You could do nothing in the face of such an evil. Even though the Kihara in front of you seemed to be light hearted and downplay their role, they were nothing but a pure evil Kihara, no matter how you looked at it. Even if they were not directly involved, they perhaps had the oversight and capability to hold the role as one of the Kiharas that one could despise without feeling bad about it.

And how they spoke of the darkness as if it was nothing more than a part time job…

It only reminded you of that fact.

"Fuck you."

You rarely swore….however the lack of words to find here seemed perfect for that rare use of words.

The Kihara laughed in response to your response and slapped you on the back as you grunted with each slap.

"Hahahaha! Ah, Intern-chan despite everything that you know about our world, you still try and stay the same. Aleister even confides in me the knowledge of the Magic side so that I can determine whether to invest in Doggy-chan's weapons so things that happen there will naturally pass to you as well."

You stepped forward, towards the room as you stayed silent.

Indeed, that was true.

The Magic side.

There were a number of things that you could say in regards to the knowledge that you had of the newfound side of the world that existed however you had no intention of discussing them with this Kihara today. You didn't like to admit it but how they had referred to the evil that they had participated in just then really pissed you off.

"Well apart from that I think that these reports surrounding this individual are only going to keep on stacking up. I've been recording them for the past 10 years, using the data and footage that UNDER_LINE sends me so there's definitely a lot to sift through. I'll treat you to lunch in the meantime so get to it."

You wanted to say nothing in regards to what the Kihara was saying however you still felt a tug of interest regarding the individual that the reports in that room was focused on. Who were they? What had they done to receive special interest from Aleister Crowley and this Kihara? Questions that you could not put off filled your head and you merely chose to ask one of them.

"What area of yours does this cover? It can't be assessing one of those horrible projects. There can't be this many in Academy City…._I hope_. So does it cover things like economics and choosing the next technology to invest in? Or which new drug to test on espers? What area of your social sciences expertise does this cover? And who is in the centre?"

You asked your question as you felt a hand on your shoulder, a light squeezing there making you want to turn away in disgust. But still, you held your ground as you heard a soft voice whisper in your ear.

"It covers a little special area of my social sciences. Insurance. And at the centre, the one who is always there. Kamijou Touma. Enjoy your day cleaning up the mess of the Imagine Breaker."

The hand was lifted off your shoulder as you looked towards the room with a strong sense of curiosity.

You had heard that name before.

Kamijou Touma.

Regarding the chaos on both the Science side and the Magic side, that was definitely a name that you would not forget any time soon.

The hidden hero of Academy City.

The Level 0 who stood above it all.

The person that was viewed as one of the greatest threats to the Kihara name and what they stood for due to his unconditional goodness in the face of everything that was evil, no matter what it was.

Part of you twinged in a small bit of jealously as you thought of that spiky haired boy. In the face of the acquaintanceship with a Kihara like you unfortunately had, what would he do? Would he punch said Kihara in the face? Or would he take his battle for peace in Academy City to the highest point?

You shook your head.

Even you had thought of ways to stop the evils that your Kihara acquaintance spoke of but there was no way that you do so. After all, you knew that if anything, the UNDER_LINE project of the General Superintendent of this City would instantly kill you if you even thought about such a thought. That technology had evolved to such a state in the past few years that by registering movements and personality, it could determine one's thought patterns with only 0.000097% error.

So if you even thought about it once and tried to act on it….that was lights out for you.

You could do nothing to stop the evil.

But that didn't stop you from giving up the hope that there would arrive a time when there was something that you could do.

In that sense, maybe it was time that you learned from someone that had more experience in this field than you did.

You walked into the room that was at least the size of two CEO's offices and sat down, picking up the nearest file on the floor and giving it a once over.

[Insurance Report Entry 12985]  
[Kamijou Touma]

You frowned at the title. That Kihara had said that among their area of social science, this one was revolving around insurance. That was definitely confirmed by the report in front of you but what did that even mean?

He opened the file and took a look at the first page.

[Insurance Report Entry 12985 Summary]  
[Using the data as provided by UNDER_LINE and following the format as prescribed in 'Insurance Report Entry 1', this report will detail the processes that led to this insurance claim that is the subject of the report. Following the Kihara choice of turning this into a 3rd person story format for 'Entertainment Purposes', this report will follow the structure adopted from 'Insurance Report 45'.]  
[Damage Assessment: 1 destroyed petrol station. 4 destroyed vehicles. Counselling for the employees of the aforementioned petrol station. Repairs and replacement needed for the arms of one Kuroyoru Umidori.]  
[Estimated Damage: Approximately 2.588 billion Yen. Figure under advisement.]  
[Cause of Claim: Kamijou Touma's Misfortune. Refer to 'Insurance Report 15' and following 'Insurance Reports' for possible list of sub-causes and incidents that are sorted under 'Kamijou Touma's Misfortune'.]  
[This report will now commence using the now standard format of a 3rd person story. Details regarding the finer points are recorded at the end of the report.]

You blinked and looked at the file that you were holding, realising something that was matched by practically all of the files inside the room that you were in.

Not only were there are a number of them, but their size and the amount of paper was something larger than what you might have thought of what an insurance paper would look like. You weren't focused upon areas like insurance and knew little about it but surely the files had to be smaller than this right?

Your interest was piqued as you fully sat down, crossing your legs as you opened the next page of the report/story.

You were being paid 900 Yen an hour doing a job for one of the most evil people in this City that you loved so much.

You may as well have some fun with this thing right?

* * *

Kuroyoru Umidori sat down with a grumbling face as she used her right arm while squinting her eyes in order to apply the liquid towards her arm carefully.

She was a cyborg and a participant of the Dark May Project being one of the survivors of that project that had implanted the personality of the #1 Level 5 into her brain through implanting his thinking processes into hers. While that had surely changed her as a person, she still felt as though there was nothing left to lose.

She could not remember who she was before beginning the project anymore so it hardly mattered to her whether she could remember who she 'used' to be.

The only thing that truly mattered now was dealing with the pain in the ass problem that she had to face all by herself because of the person that she had now become.

Or rather, she had to face a problem that was due to her becoming the machine that she had turned into.

It was something that she had felt she would never have to deal with as a cyborg of Academy City and it truly was a First World problem for someone such as her. It annoyed her to no end and parts of her just wanted to kill someone for having this problem thrown upon her however there was nothing she could do.

While Misaka Worst had not tormented her with her presence all day, it was something that Kuroyoru could not enjoy simply because of the fact that she had to deal with this one problem.

She squeezed the bottle that she was holding in her left hand, seeing the liquid drop onto the joint in her right arm which connected to her elbow, rubbing the liquid onto the joint as she gave a sigh.

She placed the bottle on the ground and inspected her detached arm, catching it in the sunlight in order to determine whether or not she had done a good job. She couldn't tell off the bat however she still felt satisfied somewhat with what she had done as she replaced her arm and twisted into place.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

This was the moment of truth.

It all led down to this.

Kuroyoru Umidori then, clad within her white jacket that she wore over head with its hood and wearing a black leather outfit that she always wore, moved her arm in a circle.

And from it came a screeching sound that truly would have sent chills up the spine of anyone who heard it. It was worse than nails down a blackboard and was coming from the joint of Kuroyoru's right arm and had tormented her all day.

Naturally though, the reaction that she had was hardly something that a girl should have had in response to such a frustrating problem.

"MotherFUCKER! You piece of shit! What the hell is wrong with you you damn hunk of metal junk!?"

Kuroyoru screamed at the top of her lungs and picked up the bottle that she had been using before as she threw it with all of her strength towards the wall of the garage that she was in. The bottle exploded upon the contact with the solid surface as the oil that was contained within splattered everywhere however Kuroyoru was beyond caring.

She slammed her fist into the concrete below, hearing the clang of metal against the ground and also the terrible squeaking of her arm that rang through the air.

Kuroyoru twitched, feeling the veins within her forehead pop put as she held her hand above the ground, the air distorting as she brought forth something that only she could.

The air seemed to change as it was compressed, the nitrogen within it forming and condensing into a form that she knew so well. This was her Level 4 ability, Bomber Lance which allowed her to form spears of nitrogen that could be fired and used at her will.

And in response to her pure anger at not having her problem fixed, she was going to unleash that very power without holding back.

She pointed her hand to the ground as the spear extended-

"Hmm? What's going on over here?"

A voice came from the side as Kuroyoru immediately spun towards the form as she unleashed the spear of nitrogen that flew through the air, outside the garage that she was in, passing narrowly close towards the figure that had appeared.

Despite being tainted with the darkness, even Kuroyoru went pale as did the as the nitrogen spear shot past the person that had appeared.

And that was when they reacted.

"G-Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!? What the hell was that!? Is that how you greet someone that you know?! I could have died! I could have seriously died!"

"You shut the fuck up! You're the last face that I want to see today!"

"Why are you getting upset?! Did you not witness what just happened? Are we just going to ignore what just happened here?!"

Kuroyoru wanted to shout something back as she rose her right arm however the screeching sound that came from it made her stop and caused her to grit her teeth extremely hard as she found herself conflicted between fixing her arm's problem and destroying the person that had magically appeared in front of her.

"Y-You! Just piss off! I have no time to deal with you and your shit now!" She started to point towards the boy that was standing in from of her that seemed unable to chain together the events as they were happening in front of him.

"My shit?! What exactly is – "

The boy stopped talking though as a screeching sound came out of Kuroyoru's arm joint, causing him to slightly shiver at the sound of it. It was almost to the extent of nails down a blackboard, perhaps worse, and the noise itself was enough to cause that reaction from him.

"What in the world was that?!" the boy cried out as Kuroyoru seemed to go red in the face, a mixture of both anger and embarrassment at what she was facing right now as she hung her head, hiding her face from view.

The boy in front of her immediately noticed the change in her tone and posture, changing his own to match the tension that was running through Kuroyoru's small body.

"Was…that your arm?" The boy asked before sniffing the air and turning towards where the putrid smell was coming from and seeing the contents of the thrown bottle streaming all over the floor, his face changing as he came a realisation.

"You've been trying to fix that sound haven't you? I was wondering what was going on but was that it?" He asked his question towards her, his face softening slightly in his features as Kuroyoru shot him a look that clearly screamed murder.

"Is that it? Is that it?! IS THAT IT!? Do you have _any_ idea the pain in the ass this is!? What the hell do I have to do to make sure that I'm not plagued by this demonic sound huh? You think that cyborgs are transforming monsters however there are days where we have to deal with this pointless shit! I refuse to seek help on this! I refuse to seek it so piss off and don't give me that look! I'm Kuroyoru fucking Umidori! And I refuse to seek help from you, you damn piss pot!"

Kuroyoru's scream of rage echoed through the garage as the boy seemed rather shocked at her words. However that the same time, worry came over his face as he did something that Kuroyoru should have expected but at the same time it truly surprised her.

He took a step forward.

The boy, Kamijou Touma, took a step forward with his hands raised to show that he meant no harm.

"Honestly, why didn't you say that in the first place? And here I was thinking that it was trivial. I'm sorry. I guess the life of a cyborg really is different to a normal high schooler like me." Kamijou remarked nonchalantly as he looked towards Kuroyoru's arm where it was placed inside the joint as Kuroyoru blinked in surprise.

"Hey, did you not hear what I just said? Do you have severe selective hearing or something? Piss. Off."

"Oh no, I heard what you said. You said you refuse to seek help. But that doesn't stop me from offering it does it?" Kamijou smiled towards her, a smile that did not suggest that he was angry or upset at the language that was being directed at him.

Kuroyoru paused, realising the logic that was behind the words before shaking her head.

No, she had been caught in this trap before. Somehow, she had no idea why it was the case, whenever this boy managed to get into her life; she found herself being strung up and entering things that she should not have as a villain. And in those things, she found herself not forcing herself to push away but rather actively joining in.

She had seen this boy speak on rather friendly terms with the #1, Accelerator, where her personality had come from. While the Dark May project aimed towards employing his cognitive thought patterns into her own, something that was matched with Kinuhata Saiai, it seemed as though the only one that had incorporated a majority of Accelerator's personality before he had changed was Kuroyoru herself.

And given how it seemed the #1 had changed in the presence of this boy, was it also not possible that a similar change was being felt by herself?

She denied it though. She refused to change. She was her own person and she had to do things by herself.

As a villain.

As a cyborg

As Kuroyoru Umidori.

"Did you even hear me? I said to go awa-"

"Hmm, it seems as though the oil that you're using is more for engines. Does it really matter what one you use?" Kamijou asked his question without a care as he strode over to where she was, looking at the joint. He tilted his head as he now stood in front of her now, inspecting the joint carefully.

Kuroyoru twitched in response, feeling her anger rise within herself. He pitied her. This asshole pitied _her_.

Without a hitch, she grabbed his collar and pressed his back against the wall as she rose her left hand and placed it next to the boy's head as she used her ability to threaten the boy there.

"Listen right here. If you take another goddamn step, I'm going to kill you where you stand. Capisce?"

"B-But will that fix your problem?" Kamijou seemed rather intimidated however it was not enough to stop him speaking as he was pressed against the wall, moving his right hand closer towards himself as a safety measure. "I get the feeling that killing me will not do so. B-Besides, two heads are better than one right?" he asked with a nervous tone.

Kuroyoru narrowed her eyes. Once again he was right but at the same time, she felt her own mind giving into what the boy was saying.

Damn, this was a pain in the ass! She didn't want help, let alone from this guy however here he was, offering his assistance to no benefit of his own.

Or was there something else?

"What do you want?"

"Huh? I just want to help. Is that so bad to help a friend?"

Kamijou replied without hesitation as Kuroyoru paused for a moment, staring back at him as he was pressed against the wall of the garage that they were both in. He spoke words that truly were something that a normal high school student might say but at the same time, they were words that had been robbed of from the girl known as Kuroyoru Umidori.

She did not seek those words.

Yet the fact that they were spoken seemed to make the girl wonder why she hadn't heard them for so long.

Her grip loosened by no intention of her own as Kamijou dropped to the ground, blinking once in probably confusion as to why Kuroyoru had let him go in the first place given her hostility.

The girl herself though did not understand either, her lips twisted in a sneer as she tried to sort out her own head. What the hell was this? Why had she let him go? Everything that she had said beforehand was rendered mute in an instant meaning that there was nothing supporting her words as her actions contradicted them.

But still the words that she had never heard before that rang honestly from the boy's mouth seemed to have enough of an effect on her to cause that small change.

Was it good or bad for her?

Even she could not say but merely spat out words that reflected her own slightly confused state.

"Do what you like."

Kamijou smiled in response as he looked at the joint that her arm was locked in place with, pointing to it.

"Can you remove it? I don't want a repeat of last time."

Kuroyoru did as she was asked without talking as the boy angled his head and got a better look at the inside of her arm, wiping his finger along the joint as the girl shivered at the touch. While her exposed joint was enough to send her into a rage, she had to bear the embarrassment for now as Kamijou held up his finger upon wiping the joint.

"This might be the problem. Look, the joint's stuffed with some kind of gunk."

Kuroyoru looked at what it was that Kamijou had on his finger, seeing that there was some kind of mysterious collection of green fluid on his finger.

"What the fuck is that?" she asked out loud.

"I have no idea. Whatever this arm crap is I think it's preventing a clear rotation of your arm."

"I'm sorry but what did you call it?"

"Arm crap."

Kuroyoru smashed her knee into a place in between the boy's legs as he let out a squeal and fell towards the floor of the garage, holding the place in between his legs and moaning slightly. Whether he was saying words was unknown but it was clear that whatever Japanese he was speaking, it was probably around the question "Why?".

"Don't call it arm crap you piece of shit. Have some respect for my body parts."

"That is the oddest thing I've heard all day…." Kamijou groaned in response as he tried to withstand the pain that was feeling through his body as he shakily stood up, leaning against the wall for support as he tried his best to control himself.

As he grunted and groaned (something that Kuroyoru paid no mind to), he pointed towards something on the shelf of the garage that made her turn towards it.

The bottle of oil that sat on the shelf was something that she had not used but due to it being the only thing that was on the shelf, Kuroyoru snatched it from where it was and brought it over towards Kamijou as he finally recovered.

"I assume that you had permission to use this stuff?" He asked.

"What the hell do you think?" she spat in disdain as Kamijou hoped that what that meant was that she hadn't broken in and decided to ransack the garage while the owners were still in.

"Then let's head out. I have an idea." Kamijou said those words as he walked out of the garage, although with a slight limp from the damage incurred as the both of them caught a glimpse of the sight that was before them.

The petrol station that was located on one of the major highways in District 7 was more for the cars that had yet to make the jump to more fuel efficient vehicles yet at the same time, the garage that was located to the side was the business that seemed to get the most business.

No matter where one was, it always seemed as though people that wanted an upgrade to the vehicle that got them from A to B were everywhere no matter the city. While that meant that Kuroyoru always had the chance go access more oil, it also meant that places that she could use without being interrupted were few and far between.

Kamijou made his way towards the petrol station that was to the left of the garage, passing by the bathroom and toilets that the employees and customers likely used before entering into the petrol station himself.

"Stay out here but in sight please. I just need the owner to see you."

Kuroyoru said nothing in response as she watched the boy enter the petrol station, followed by someone else that had parked their car at one of the pumps. There were four other cars there and it seemed as though all of the owners were inside, judging by the occupants that were inside.

The Level 4 cyborg scanned the interior of the store with her eyes and almost on habit used the reflections of the fridges of the back to analyse the location of her targets.

Two in the back, with their backs towards where she was. Another searching the grocery section for something to take home for a late night meal and another kid that was shoplifting, taking what was clearly his weekly manga off the shelf. Employees were manning the counter, two of them, as Kamijou spoke towards the manager. He pointed towards Kuroyoru who averted her gaze slightly.

What the hell was she doing?

How in the world had it ended up like this, with her being helped by some idiot with spiky hair? No, from what she had seen, this was something that he did naturally. In complete contrast to her and the Dark Side of Academy City, the boy seemed to radiant an innocent light that protected him from such darkness as he maintained his faith in others and the world around him.

Was that idiocy? Or perhaps a strange sort of kind and beautiful naivety?

"Fuck if I know…."

Kuroyoru spat out those words as the manager moved towards the back room, passing by something that made Kuroyoru freeze on the spot as Kamijou was handed that same something by one of the employees.

It was a dolphin.

Her entire body trembled as she pressed herself up against the glass of the petrol station, scaring one of the employees that was there. When he looked her way though, she responded by shooting him a death glare that caused him to stumble back in pure fright as Kuroyoru watched the boy talk towards the (female) employee as Kuroyoru looked at the dolphin while moving the snack stand that was next to her out of her way so that she could get a better look at the dolphin.

Why was that there?

Kuroyoru truly felt as though there were some aspects of her that must have remained from before the Dark May Project and it was definitely her like for dolphins that was one of them. It was not a weakness per se but rather an intrinsic fascination, with the intelligent occupants of the sea.

There was just something about them.

Their stream like bodies, their social structure and intelligence. Not to mention their own anatomy and echolocation, adaptation and –

It seemed though that Kamijou Touma paid no attention to any of these things though as he stuffed the dolphin in his mouth, ripping apart the tiny mammal with his teeth without changing facial expression as he swallowed and pulled a thoughtful expression on his face.

The snack stand that was next to Kuroyoru Umidori suddenly exploded as she released a nitrogen spear, piercing through the entire line of products as chips flew in all directions as she crushed the metal railings of the snack stand with her bare hands.

The employee that she had shot a death glare to earlier fainted however the amounts of fucks that she gave were minute at best.

That total bastard. That unbelievable motherfucker.

He just ate….a dolphin. He ate it. What kind of messed up cannibalism was this shit?!

She twitched as the manager reappeared, giving Kamijou a key as he nodded in thanks towards him as he walked out of the petrol station and looked towards Kuroyoru however noticed the crumpled metal within her grasp.

"What th-?" He never finished though as Kuroyoru punched him in the face, sending him sprawling to the ground as she got in close, holding her palm over the boy's forehead.

"I did not kill you earlier. I believe that it is time to rectify that now."

"Wh-what did I do!? I swear I'm innocent!" The guilty Kamijou cried out in protest towards not knowing what had caused her sudden change in mood however seemed to connect the dots almost immediately, perhaps a testament to the various incidents that he had been a part of.

"The dolphin!? That was an animal donut! I swear to God, my mother and the king of dolphins! It was an animal donut that they ordered in bulk by accident so they gave me a freebee! I swear!"

Kuroyoru though did not release Kamijou from his position as she kept her palm focused on the boy's head without moving or twitching as her facial expression did not change whatsoever, instead nodding towards the key that was in his hand. As a result though, neither of them watched the rather compromising position that the girl was on, straddling the boy with her palm on his forehead.

One of the employees went red in the face as she looked at the scene and turned away, trying to distract herself as Kuroyoru asked something of Kamijou despite their compromising position.

"What the fuck is that for?" She spat out.

"The bathroom."

Kuroyoru's mind went blank as soon as she heard those words being directed towards her. Wait, why had she waited outside then? Did all this guy want was to take a piss before they got down to business just to relieve whatever pressure was building in his goddamn bladder?!

"I see. I'll just relieve you of that sensation then shall I you piece of shit?"

"Hn? Wait. Waitwaitwait! I seriously need that so don't use your ability there! There is a limit to how cruel you can be! Mercyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!"

Kamijou cried out in protest with fear in his eyes at losing perhaps one part of him that could never be replaced as Kuroyoru looked up towards the people that were staring back at them in shock and surprise (and also embarrassment due to where her palm was hovering over in the position that she was in).

She clicked her tongue, standing up and grabbing Kamijou by the foot as she took the key from him.

"The bathroom huh? Let me get you there with an express trip OK?" She said with a false smile as Kamijou paled, as she began to move and drag him along the ground.

"Hang on just there Kuro-nyan! I can explain so please just let me go! Please don't shoot off that part of me! Wasn't kicking it enough?! Why are you obsessed with touching down there anyway!? C-Could it be that you want to be a – "

"I'm sure I won't lose any sleep tonight torturing you."

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?!"

Kamijou cried at the top of his lungs as he tried to struggle however the grip of the demonic cyborg was too strong as the manager watched them go, unable to tell them something that he had forgotten about the door to the bathroom and its contents itself.

He felt though that they would figure it out for themselves though as Kuroyoru unlocked the door and kicked it open, throwing Kamijou into the toilets that were inside the bathroom. He fell to the ground, smashing against one of the boxes that were inside the bathroom, something that filled it to the roof and only left one cubicle open as Kuroyoru pointed her left palm towards the boy.

"I'm going to enjoy this. And to think that I had the naivety to trust you. I think it's time to nip this pain in the ass in the bud."

"Wait!"

Kuroyoru though fired her nitrogen spear (aiming for the side of his ear as only to scare him) as it met with Imagine Breaker, Kamijou foaming at the mouth given that she had actually fired it in the space that they were in. He almost lost consciousness from the mere fear he was feeling as he pressed his back against the box that was on his back.

"I-If you listen to what I have to say then you'll see that-"

He never finished his sentence as the contents of the box spilled all over him, instantly causing Kuroyoru to freeze up at seeing them in front of her.

"Huh? Oh, that's right. That employee said that they were storing the bulk elsewhere but in the bathroom? How many boxes are there of these things? There must be over 9000! Of donuts that is. This would be heaven for Index….."

The animal donuts, or more accurately, the dolphin donuts splattered all over the floor over Kamijou as he watched Kuroyoru looking at them with a fascinated expression as he slowly stood up.

It seemed as though she was rather distracted for the moment meaning that Kamijou had the chance to fix whatever misunderstanding had been caused between the two of them. The first thing that he needed to do though was to ensure that he maintained a sense of calm and create a peaceful atm-

*Squish*

Something squished underneath his foot as the boy paused for a moment, slowly looking down at seeing the strawberry jam filled dolphin donut crushed underneath his foot. The jam had spread from his foot, squirting out in such a way that, if captured by Anti-Skill cameras, could have passed off as being a murder scene.

He paled though as he looked up towards the girl in front of him as she clenched a fist and rose her right arm, causing a screeching sound to resound through the air.

"I'm dead aren't I?"

"Got it in one you piece of shit."

"Such misfortune."

[For the sake of report and to prevent any legal problems surrounding the resulting high rating that the following scene might receive in Japanese rating standards applied in Academy City, the content of the next few seconds have been censored for reader discretion.]

* * *

"So, that's your master plan? What the actual fuck?"

Kuroyoru sat down in her castle of dolphins as Kamijou used the strawberry jam of one of them (which he ate upon permission of Queen Umidori) to rub against his face in order to cool down the wounds that he had received. His face was awfully swollen and it seemed as though most of his face were lumps and bumps but he felt as though he had gotten away with something minor.

A number of boxes had been opened in order to allow Kuroyoru the chance to be surrounded by animal dolphin donuts but in truth, Kamijou felt he had escaped with the skin of his teeth despite it being minor.

"What's wrong with it? Do you have a better idea?" protested Kamijou in defence.

Kuroyoru though held her face in her hands as she deliberated on the idea this idiot had given her. While no, she did not have any better ideas she still could not accept what had been said.

_"So basically, the arm crap…..ah, I mean the 'stuff' inside your arm is probably stopping the joint from working properly. You've already got oil inside the joint meaning that to get it out we need to wash out whatever that stuff is. Since you've already used oil we can just run water over the joint itself. As the water and oil don't mix, the water will just run off the oil, removing whatever this stuff is. And problem solved right? Your joint will be squeaky-clean-free. Hahaha-bffhah?!"_

While that was the idea in essence (Kuroyoru had hit him because of the pun), there was still a major problem as she pointed towards the open cubicle that held the only working toilet.

"And you're telling me that I have to use toilet water….to wash out my arm?"

"Oh don't worry. I doubt that it will cause rust." Kamijou said simply.

"That's what I'm worrying about you dumbass!" If Kuroyoru had a table she would have sworn she would have flipped as Kamijou recoiled in surprise at her outburst as she stood up and pointed towards the toilet as she looked down at him on the ground.

"That's toilet water! Who knows who has pissed and shit in that stuff! And you want me to wash it over myself?!" Kuroyoru screamed as she held her head in rage, hearing the screeching from her arm once again which only served to anger her further.

"I should have never have listened to you in the first place! Shit! What a waste of time! Open the damn door and get us out of here!" It seemed as though Kuroyoru was way more comfortable than what she should have been surrounded by dolphins as she grumbled at the rejection of his idea.

He stood up, slipping on one of the dolphins on the floor as he landed on his back, earning a seething glare from Kuroyoru as he frantically made his way to the door by crawling and trying to doorknob.

"Huh?"

He tried again, pushing, pulling and generally trying everything that he had in order to open the door but to no avail. A cold sweat covered his body as his entire soul and will told him to not turn around as he heard the annoyed voice of Kuroyoru come from behind him.

"The door's locked isn't it?"

Kamijou nodded.

"And you've probably lost the key haven't you?"

Technically, it was Kuroyoru who had opened the door meaning that this was all her fault that the key was lost!

However Kamijou did not have the physical endurance to put up with another beating from her so he simply nodded.

"Right. Get out of the fucking way so that I can blast down that door." said Kuroyoru as she rose her left arm, ready to use her ability against it in order to blow the door from its hinges so that they could both escape.

"Hang on! There were petrol pumps out there! Who knows what could happen if you blasted down the door? I think we should get out through the window on the other side of those boxes! It's safer and the chances of people getting hurt are significantly lower!"

"I refuse! If you think that I'm having you step on these dolphins with your dirty feet then you have another thing coming!"

"What are you talking about? They are products meant to be consumed. they- Alright, yesyesyesyes! This Kamijou-san will not step over them to get to the window so please lower your palm from my general direction!"'

Kamijou cried out at the top of his voice in order to try and stop however she merely spat out a sour retort as she held her head in her hands.

"So what now? Do you have any more bright ideas Einstein? Or are you planning on having us eat each other in order to survive and drink from the toilet for water?" asked Kuroyoru.

"Actually the animal donuts might help here." replied Kamijou as he looked down in thought as he took a box from the number of them and put it on the ground, opening and revealing the lines of dolphin donuts that were lined up in there.

"How so?" Kuroyoru frowned however rose an eyebrow in interest towards the boy's thinking that was outside the box as he took one of the dolphins out and pressed it. The dough that made up the donut crushed underneath his grip as white cream came from the inside of the donut.

"Cream works just as well as water I would say. It might stick and smell funny but it's worth a shot. If you want to give jam a shot then that's fine too."

Kuroyoru blanched.

This guy….wanted to spread cream over her body that was already covered in black leather? What was this, a fucking fanservice scene? Was she supposed to cry in lewd ways as he spread cream over her body so to satisfy his sexual urges?! Not to mention what jam could be used for!

Was this what he had planned the entire time!?

This slimy bastard was a thinker as Kuroyoru's expression grew dark.

"And here I thought you had the capability of a good person." She spat out in that dark tone.

"Huh?" asked Kamijou, genuinely confused.

"What, do you plan on spreading cream all over me, not just my fucking 'arm'!? You make me sick you fucking bastard. You are one fucked up individual for thinking this up. And this is me talking."

"Wait, what are you talking abo-?" Kamijou spoke his confusion however seemed to realise what it was that she was saying as he grew rather red in the face as he turned his gaze away from her while trying to get rid of the animal donut.

"H-Hey! I was just trying to help! I-I wasn't thinking anything like that! B-Besides, the goth loli style that you're going for isn't moe enough for me!" Kamijou sounded flustered which made him slightly believable however there was something else that the cyborg could not pass up.

"If that's the case then why the hell did you mention jam?! Are you planning on using that as a sex lubricant!?" spat out Kuroyoru.

"A WHAT!?" Kamijou backed away from Kuroyoru and looked down to his shoe where the jam of the dolphin that he stepped on was. "But how does that even work? It's jam! It's….! No, how the hell did you even know it's a sex lubricant!? I didn't know that! Why did you think that I was having those kinds of thoughts?"

"Don't mess with me you damn bastard! I'm not giving you anything related to my chastity or virginity!"

"I just explained myself! I'm innocent! There is no need for a fanservice scene if it's just us two in the bathroom and I don't need a sex lubricant! I'm a healthy high school boy with no problems down there thank you very much!"

"I don't give a f-waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!?" Kuroyoru, due to her anger in response to Kamijou's pure stupidity had stood up in her chair of dolphins and done something that was similar to what Kamijou had done; slipped and down on them.

"Kuroyoru! Are you alr-waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!?" Kamijou called out to her in worry and stepped her way despite not noticing the dolphins that were at his feet as he slipped on one that had cream in it, throwing him into the air as he fell on top of Kuroyoru.

The boxes of donuts above them fell on top of them as some caught underneath Kamijou's form as he fell, squishing and sending their tasty contents onto Kuroyoru's form beneath him.

"S-Sorry, I-!" Kamijou frantically tried to get up however paused as her saw the girl beneath him.

Cream covered her black arm and both of the joints of her arms, the strawberry jam that was inside many of the donuts sticking to her skin and giving her a strange sort of sexual allure that was only found in cheap anime with unnecessary fanservice scenes.

To give unnecessary and over-descriptive detail, the cream that covered her body only placed itself on her skin, running around erotically around her body. While it seemed as though it was suited more to a girl like Lessar, it somehow seemed to match her and her figure in a strange way. The jam had a similar effect, giving a sweet scent of sugar as it caused her hair to stick to the side of her face and parts of her clothes to stick to her body. Of course the cream and jam located around both her arm joints only seemed to add to the effect that she was giving off as well.

Kuroyoru blinked once and twitched as she tilted her head despite her goth loli smile and mouthed three words.

"You're fucking dead."

Kamijou smiled and cried silent, anime tears as Kuroyoru rose both of her arms as she unleashed her power however noticed one thing.

"My arm's fixed?!"

"Huh?"

It was too late though as Kuroyoru had already planned her revenge, upping the outputs of her spears however with a strange movement as if Kuroyoru were testing her arms, they twisted backwards suddenly.

Kuroyoru cried out in pain however the Bomber Lance had already been activated.

Nitrogen spears fired from her palms, shooting her arms out and body forward into Kamijou's however even then, that was not the most surprising thing that happened.

Almost as if the cream and jam combination had worked too well, the arms sailed free from the joints connecting them to the rest of Kuroyoru's body as they sailed majestically through the air. They obliterated the donuts that they fired at and smashed through the bathroom's locked door.

Yet their journey was not over as they continued to fly through the air, Kamijou having to angle his head now that Kuroyoru was on top of him (covering them both with cream and jam) backwards in order to see what was going on.

Kuroyoru rose her head and went white as the cream on her face as the arms tossed and turned in the air…

Smashing into the petrol pumps that were located in front of the bathroom itself.

A tiny amount of sparks flew from the metal contact from the arms and the pumps but that was enough to ignite the gasoline within the pumps itself.

Fire spread, erupting the entire pump into flames however that was not something that was singularly focused on the one pump. One of Kuroyoru's arms was a bit behind of the other one as it flew through the air, catching fire as it flew through the fire of the first pump and smashed into the ones behind it.

What happened next was hardly something one would find on a normal day.

The pumps burst into flames and exploded, sending the entire petrol pump station into a ball of flame that burnt the 4 cars that were there and the arms of Kuroyoru Umidori instantly, turning them into a melted facsimile of what they had once been.

The occupants of the petrol station that watched the chaos gawked in pure shock as many of them fainted from the sight, foaming at the mouth.

Kuroyoru Umidori though could not find the words to describe what she was seeing, blabbering something about her arms however it was Kamijou Touma that seemed to have a complete understanding of what was happening as he covered his head with his hands and roared something into the sky.

"Such misfortuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

* * *

There was silence from you as you sat among the mess in the filing cabinet room that seemed large enough to fit 2 CEO offices for those hotshots on District 1.

What was there to say?

You found yourself unable to tell whether the right response was to laugh, cry or feel really, really bad for the boy that had been indirectly responsible for what had happened.

But there was something else that you found to be extremely unbelievable.

Judging by the report number, there was 12984 other incidents like this one. They may have been smaller or larger or perhaps something that was recorded just for the sake of it by UNDER_LINE but they were there.

The 12984 incidents that had happened in Academy City without you knowing about it.

You placed the file that you had just read behind you, picking up another one without giving it much thought at all.

Was this really the person that made Kiharas tremble with fear apart from the #1? Was this really the hidden hero of Academy City? From what you had just read it seemed as though he had more personal problems than problems that were caused by others.

But he had offered his hand towards someone that he had felt was in need. Wasn't that perhaps the greatest thing that he could have done right then and there?

However was that fanservice scene there something that happened in his normal life? Were there other things out there that he did and had different results? And what about the censored scene?

What the hell was the normal life of Kamijou Touma?

Was it really limited towards incidents of misfortune? And if so, how far did they reach?

These files weren't going anywhere, you were being paid 900 Yen an hour and despite working for someone in the most despicable family you knew (thankfully not personally), you still looked at another file in front of you as you opened it.

There was something that you had asked yourself once before and you smiled somewhat as you read the first page of the new report.

Despite what was happening in this City, despite the pain of projects, the desperation to level up, the happiness from people re-joining after a long day away from each other, the anxiety of exams and your personal frustration at having been made to work through these files, there was something that you had to ask yourself despite all of that.

You may as well have some fun with this thing right?

* * *

**And there we go!**

**This one-shot was clearly misfortune based. However at the same time, I wanted to at least have Kuro-nyan make an appearance although the amount of personal thought that I gave her made me think that maybe it might be good to use in A Certain Unknown Level 0 if I get around to her arc.**

**But what did you think?**

**While this was meant to be something that made you laugh (hopefully), at the same time I wanted to allow you an insight into the life of 'yourself' by using the 2nd person perspective in the beginning. What would you do? It might seem as though it was a 'self-insert' for me however I wanted to put you, the reader in Academy City and looking at it through your eyes rather than Touma's or another person's perspective. It was a little experiment so what did you think?**

**I tried to make 'you' and the Kihara that was mentioned speak and act in a way that could be leaned towards both genders so it might be interesting to hear if it worked. And as for the Kihara, this idea came to me after reading NT 8! While Touma seems to mention a 'mysterious masked carpentry group' that could fix his wall, his wall is fixed when we next go to him in his dorm in the following volume, NT 12.**

**Meaning that such a group does exist, although it is unknown how to contact them and the like. I felt as though someone had to contact and organise such a group so I merely expanded that idea and came up with the idea of the Kihara of social sciences. I guess you could think of them as the 'Accountant Kihara' that oversees the profitability of the projects themselves.**

**But I hope that you enjoyed what was supplied for 'Entertainment purposes' despite the numerous reports.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**To be honest, I just wanted to address the idea of an Insurance idea just for Touma. And with at least 12985 files on him, you can imagine the types of things that he might get up to and the related costs…..**


	13. The Resolve of a Hunter

**And with the release of the pilot (Elite, hehehe…) of Heavy Object, for those of you interested in the other Kamachi work that is Index that I can provide you (hopefully successfully) welcome back to Between the Lines. But still, at least support Kamachi Kaizumi!**

**I don't know if you guys are happy about this, but this is another original idea from yours truly. I want to alternate between the two for sure right now so that while you can check out the reviews and see what there is and what to expect, you can also expect a surprise after every request. This is surely going to keep me on my toes so please bear with me as I slowly trod along.**

**Of course in these occasional 'original' stories, I might do a repeat or another part of a previous one so keep your eyes open if you had a favourite one-shot!**

**These are one shots so I really think I should avoid going into massive explanations here. But whatever. I think we need to have some fun and let loose in these situations meaning that we can always do what it is we do whenever we read these.**

**These stories though do serve as a nice breaker from A Certain Unknown Level 0 and the action that happens there so I hope that for now, you enjoy what this turns out to be.**

**And before I start, I'd like to thank those that supported me through this.**

**The first of course is my beta reader PokeRescue18. There are so many ways that I can says thanks but here it is once again. I truly an indebted to you for fixing this project of mine up.**

**And the next is you, the reader. Without you enjoying what I have to offer, I can tell you that things would not go as smoothly as they do for me so I really owe you guys as well for all that you do here.**

**And I only hope that you do one more thing for me right now.**

**Enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

Rivals Bound By One-Sided Desire. _The_Chase_Begins._

The ability to completely dehydrate and replace the body's fluids with a non-conductive liquid.

"Misaka-san!"

"Ah, sorry sensei!"

No, that couldn't be it. After all, more than 60% of the human body was water, give or take and not including the total water in muscles which was 75%. Dehydrating oneself and turning that water in the body into a completely in a full blown out processing machine without that water that could possibly result in death in a worst case scenario if there was little control.

This was Academy City however Misaka Mikoto had to disregard it because of the risk involved.

The ability to terraform the body, changing one's protein and keratin of the skin into earth or some other ground based material.

"Um…miss? The light is red."

"Huh? Ohhohohohoho! I knew that! Hahaha!"

No, that couldn't be it either. While there were espers out there with the ability of Metamorphose, extensions of such to incorporate other materials were rare. Besides, they usually needed direct contact and there had been nothing from what she had seen.

Thus she also had to deny that possibility because of the rarity of the option at place.

The ability to serve as a lightning rod.

"Misaka-saaaaaaaaaaaaan. I heard something interesting happened to you two days ago!"

"Shokuhou, go away. I'm in no mood for you right now."

That too was not option at hand. After all, if one served as a lightning rod, they absorbed all of the electricity and from what she had seen the electricity was merely something that dissipated into mid-air without explanation rather than being 'absorbed'.

Yet as there had been no effect, Misaka Mikoto also had to disregard that option as well.

The ability to phase in and out of reality in order to splice attacks into their basic components and thus prevent any injury from happening whatsoever.

"Misaka-san, are you listening? I still want us to be friends."

"Yes, yes. I'm still not sure what to think of this Kurai Shiroko that is replacing you though."

"That's the wrong way around Misaka-san…."

That idea just sounded ridiculous, even to her. That would be splicing reality in half and while Personal Realities allowed for a number of things, her searches of the Bank for abilities and possible options available to her surrounding such an ability were rendered mute.

So she had to discard that option as well.

Currently, Misaka Mikoto sat on a bench in District 7, tapping her foot rather frantically as she thought furiously about what had happened to her only two days ago.

Although she did not know whether someone had mentioned something about it, over the past few days she had barely listened to anything that anyone had said to her. Her mind was incredibly distracted and she knew what the cause was without having to think too hard about it too.

After all, she had lost 2 nights of sleep because of this.

It was June 19th.

And Misaka Mikoto was distracted by a boy.

It wasn't like the shoujo manga that she enjoyed where there was a heart-throbbing event that had taken place for her. Quite the opposite, it had been an event that might have been heart-stopping for those involved but the matter was that the events of two days prior, June 17th definitely shook her to the very core.

Because it had been two days ago that she had faced someone that she had never faced before.

It had been when she had been surrounded by numerous delinquents that had clearly been hitting on her. She had chosen to be passive, if only for a moment, choosing the best options in her mind about what to do, how to do it and how it should be executed in order to allow her to gain the least blame upon herself.

She was a Level 5, the Third Level 5, the Third strongest esper in the City, for God's sake.

She should have been able to do things for herself but at the moment on that night, something had changed amidst the people around her that had not intervened in order to protect themselves from trouble.

_"Oh….Found her, found her!"_

However amidst that, a voice had called out to her.

_"So, you were here all this time! That won't do, letting your hands go just like that."_

She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists into balls as she struggled to hold in her frustration.

No, it was not that about that mysterious spiky haired boy that had thrown her off.

It had been the fact that after he had aggravated her to the extent that she had unleashed her power; _he had stood unharmed among those she attacked_. He merely had his right hand outstretched as if nothing had happened at all. There was not a mark on him so she had only done what was natural.

She had attacked him again.

And he had blocked once again as if the thing that she had sent his way, the work that she had put into from being a Level 1 all the way to a Level 5 was nothing more than something to be swatted away and discarded.

"And then he had the nerve to say that he's a Level 0?! I refuse to believe it! I refuse, you hear me!"

Mikoto vented, causing those that listened to her to jump at her ladylike aura being destroyed as she sat down on the bench and did not mind whatsoever that she had just caused a scene. Her breathing was heavy however she placed a hand to her forehead.

While being a Level 5 meant that many people thought that she was only powerful, there was something else that she was despite her young age.

And that was smart.

Extremely smart.

She had reached this stage by making sure that her calculations that she input into her Personal Reality and power was perfect, fine-tuned and honed down to the finest detail in order to allow her to win. If she found an obstacle then she merely overcame it with her own will and methods.

Which only meant that now, she needed to apply herself to the problem that she was facing.

But then again, that WAS the problem.

After all, she had stayed up for 2 nights straight trying to figure this out, hacking the Bank numerous times when she thought she had hit a breakthrough, only to hit a massive wall once again. It was like no matter where she was heading, the mystery surrounding the boy only led back to square one.

It was similar to a detective being asked to solve a crime with no evidence, only having to guess his way through an investigation with any evidence being declared useless the moment it was discovered.

Many people might have been intrigued, wanting to tackle this mysterious problem and discover what lay at its very heart so that they had a sense of self-satisfaction once they reached a solution.

But for Misaka Mikoto, it just pissed her off.

In her mind, the plan that she had devised was foolproof. All she needed was more data in order to come towards the best solution, more information about the power of that boy so that she could claim her victory over him and truly overcome the obstacle towards her own growth.

Yet that again posed another problem.

She knew nothing.

While she had been in District 7 when he had appeared, that was nothing to go on as a whole. He might have been passing by meaning that there was nothing suggesting that he actually lived here in the District. She could definitely hack some security cameras in order to find out anything about the boy after he had run away from her when they had met but right now, she had nothing else to go on.

What was his name? School? Age?

He said he was a Level 0…but if that true then that only meant that he was one of the 60% of people that had undergone that Power Curriculum Program. There were around 1.1 million people in this City who were Level 0 and that was a definitely large number to skin through.

So where did she start?

Where did she start when it came towards finding that spiky haired blockhead who had trampled on everything that she had worked on without a care?

"Oh, someone's already here."

Mikoto looked up towards the source of the voice, seeing that a young couple, a man with glasses holding the hand on a woman of similar age with glamourous looks were standing in front of her with looks that seemed to suggest that they were disappointed in some way.

"Ah, sorry. Did you want to sit here? I was just resting so there's no problem!"

Mikoto who had been lost in her thoughts for the past few days knew that she was not all in the here-and-now so if anything she felt extremely bad whenever she inconvenienced someone over the past few days. People on the street, her roommate that was leaving soon, her teachers and fellow students at Tokiwadai (except maybe that honey blonde breast monster) were constantly being inconvenienced to which the guilt she had over that was not only awkward but very frustrating.

Yet she blamed it all on the idiot that had made her cause those people the inconvenience.

"Ah, no. It's nothing. Please sit back down." The woman said so politely however Mikoto was the one who insisted, standing up and moving away from the seat in order to allow the couple to sit down.

They both looked at each other before nodding towards her in thanks and sat down on the bench, clearly waiting for something due to the fact that they were not carrying anything that suggested that what they had was a date.

Yet if they were on one, it was something that Mikoto who was only 14 years old and without a boyfriend (something that didn't bother her much as she had no one she thought of in that way) knew she should not interrupt as she bowed towards the couple.

"Sorry for taking your spot. I hope you have a lovely day!"

"Not at all, stay by all means! You look as though you need something to cheer you up." remarked the man with the glasses as she moved over towards the side to give Mikoto enough room.

"I'm not….disturbing anything am I?" she asked cautiously as she looked at the spot where she had been deep in thought about her situation only moments before.

The man blushed however the woman laughed cheerily.

"Hahaha! No, not at all. You see, it's around this time that supplementary lessons and people held back after school get out. This is where we met actually, 2 months ago. And ever since, we've been here to see the person that brought us together through chance." replied the woman with a smile.

"Oh?" Mikoto raised an eyebrow as she suddenly found herself rather interested. While she did not like to pry into the extremely personal details, there was definitely something pure in the romance of chance and the feelings that other people had for each other, even in this City of Science.

Even if things were different here, it seemed as though there were always going to be things that popped up in cities everywhere.

And this love between the man and woman was only one of them.

"Ah, yes. I remember it now. I was walking through this very park you see. I was alone however my girlfriend here was with some of her friends. We passed by and to be honest, we didn't even look at each properly or even speak. We were just strangers." started the man.

"So what happened?" asked Mikoto as she sat down on the seat next to the man as the woman spoke up.

"Chaos. A boy, who probably was in high school at the time ran into me, apologised and then continued on and,"

"Ran into me," replied the man with a chuckle. "It turned out that he was being chased by a malfunctioning cleaning robot. It had stolen one of his shoes because he had stepped into some unmentionables left by a dog and apparently wanted the other shoe that had done the same."

"He stepped on the dress that I was wearing at the time and left a nasty stain. And then when we knocked you over…! He stepped on your face and left you with that crap on your face! The smell was there for weeks! Hahahaha!" The woman laughed with joy as the man chuckled slightly, blushing and rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yeah, I remember that. We were both in a mess however as the boy apologised, there was nothing to really get angry about. My girlfriend left her friends and we both tried to find some sort of bathroom to get the stuff off our faces and dress and we just talked. It wasn't a large thing and we exchanged numbers. But as we kept in touch, we grew closer and closer until…" The man clasped the hand of his girlfriend as she smiled in response, placing her head on the man's shoulder.

Mikoto though listened to their story and smiled at the two of them at the bottom of her heart.

"That's so romantic. It's hard to find something like that these days to be honest that's not in manga. So then reason you're here is because of-"

"Yep. Apparently one of my friends saw him running through this park, chased by another cleaning robot last month. We decided to come to check it out and saw him as he ran through. We didn't even get the chance to thank him as he made his way through us once again. We don't even talk when we do see him as he's always in a rush. Sometimes he doesn't come through here but sometimes I think it is good to appear here to thank him. For without him there would be no us." The woman explained as Mikoto felt a flush of red go to her cheeks because of the story.

It was a somewhat fairy tale romance, something that was usually dreamed about in schools like Tokiwadai Middle. There was something oddly pure about it and she truly felt as though giving her support for the couple in front of her was something that she truly wanted to do even though she had just met them.

"Sorry for the story. It's just that-" stared the man however Mikoto merely waved her hand.

"Not at all, I asked. Besides, I think that I really want to support you guys right now. Treat her well alright? They'll be hell to pay otherwise." Mikoto made a hand gun gesture towards the man as she 'fired', causing the woman to smile and the man to grin.

"You got it."

Mikoto smiled back and indicated to the pathway that was in the park in front of them now.

"But somehow I want to see this guy that brought you together. Is there a set time or do you guys just sit here?" she asked, wondering if there would be a lot of time between her sitting here and finding the guy or whether it would take time. She had a schedule (somewhat) to keep after all and her own boy to find.

"It depends. Sometimes he doesn't come. Sometimes he does. But when he does, he's always running. Isn't that right dear?" asked the woman to her boyfriend as he nodded, adjusting his glasses.

"Indeed. But we can always tell when he is. Because he'll always end up yelling-"

The man though was interrupted by a male voice echoing through the park that caused Mikoto to jump slightly not in fright…..but recognition.

"SUCH MISFORTUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Mikoto turned her head towards the location where it had come from and all her thoughts froze instantly.

She looked at a spiky haired boy…no, _the _spiky haired boy as he ran at top speed through the park that made many people side step out of his way, doing so without a rush as if they had expected what was coming.

"That's…!"

"That's him." said the woman and man together.

"Him!?"

"You know him?" asked the man rather surprised however the hesitant voice that Mikoto gave seemed to answer that for him as they watched the high schooler turn his head and shout something back towards whatever was chasing him.

Yet now that Mikoto thought about it, what in the world was chasing him?

He had done….something to her power without a hitch. Even if he did not think she was a Level 5, he had done so without breaking a sweat or showing fear on his face. But right now was different. The tension on his face was intense, sweat covering his body as he truly fled for his life.

Mikoto personally did not know the boy well enough to worry about him however he was someone that she was going to defeat.

Her and no one else.

Which meant that whatever this immense threat towards the boy was, and then she was going to be the one to deal with it?

But could she even do that? The boy had destroyed her power and right now, he was truly fleeing something that was causing him to panic when he had not done so when facing her. What did that mean for what was chasing him?

What kind of monster was it?

"You need to make sure to get down. I think this could be dangerous." Mikoto said as she stepped forward towards the approaching boy however her arm was grabbed by the man with the glasses.

She turned and saw that he had a soft smile on his face, something that was matched by the woman.

"I can tell that you're a good person. But I think that maybe you need to re-evaluate what you're thinking. See?" He pointed towards the approaching boy as Mikoto turned her head and got a better look, seeing and hearing what the boy was looking and yelling at.

"Go away! I've done nothing wrong! There's a special on at the supermarket so can you please cease this before theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!?"

The boy yelled back towards the small form chasing him, Mikoto freezing on the spot as all life seemed to leave her body as she saw what was chasing him, the thing that had caused him to pull that panicked face in front of her.

The small Chihuahua barked and yipped as it went in full pursuit of the boy, followed by its owner, as that spiky haired idiot passed right in front of Mikoto, not even glancing her way as the Chihuahua continued chasing its prey as the man spoke.

"See? It's never really major whatever chases him. Sometimes you get the occasional delinquent but he always manages to get away. He's quite something to watch. Remember the leopard?" asked the man as the woman seemed to pale slightly, however it was Mikoto that opened her mouth in shock to what the man said.

"Oh yes. It might have been an accident but when he made the jump for the truck I thought he was a goner."

"The truck did crash though."

"He walked away from that too remember? I didn't think people were built that tough."

Both the man and the woman smiled to each other even though it was clear that they had probably been tenser during what they were talking about but now that everything was alright, they had the ability to joke about it happily.

Yet what they were saying only made Mikoto show her own canines in response.

"That's perfect. He has to be like that after all. _I won't accept anything else from him_! We'll see who's a Level 0 for sure!"

Mikoto let out that battle cry as she broke into a run after the boy, her entire body pumping adrenaline into her veins as she started her chase after her target that had eluded her for two days.

But no more.

She had found him through chance.

And now it was time.

It was time for the #3 Level 5 Misaka Mikoto to gather the data needed to overcome the boy and his power that had managed to swat aside everything she stood for so easily.

It was time to see who came out on top.

* * *

It had been only after the boy had run up a tree that the small Chihuahua could only resort to barking and yipping away at the boy as he was stuck there that the owner finally managed to grab the dog. He apologised profusely towards the boy that was stuck in the tree and it was to the suggestion of the spiky haired boy that the owner leave before the dog got all excited about him coming down that the owner did so.

Mikoto watched the mean leave, walking underneath the tree now that the man had left as she looked up towards the boy in the tree with an annoyed look on her face.

"Are you serious?"

"Huh? Who are you?"

The boy asked while clinging on a branch as he turned his head to look towards her as he angled his leg in order to catch onto some part of the tree that he had used to climb up on however it was no use.

With a cracking sound the branch he was clinging onto broke as he fell towards the ground, rolling on the ground in pain as he groaned while slowly getting up and still groaning.

"Oh, it's you. Ow….That Biri Biri middle schooler. So, what can I do for you young Tokiwadai-ojou-chan?" the boy asked her as he stood up, kicking the branch that he had fallen off and looking around where he was as he tried to get his bearings and location.

"Biri Biri? Who in the world is that?" Mikoto asked her question as she put her hands on her hips as the boy merely stepped back out onto the pathway while pointing to her.

"You obviously. When you went all 'biri biri' against me and those guys that were with you. Come to think of it, why the hell did you attack me afterwards? I had nothing to do with what they were doing! I was trying to help!" The boy cried out towards her while turning his full attention to her now.

"I didn't ask for your help!" Mikoto cried out in defence towards what it was that was being said towards her. "And don't call me Biri Biri! I don't want to be stuck with a strange nickname from someone I hardly know! My name is Misaka Mikoto! Remember it because it's the name of the person that will defeat you!"

Mikoto said those words with pride as the boy seemed to stare at her with disinterest, waving a hand as he turned his back towards her and strode down the pathway.

"Yeah, yeah whatever Biri Biri. I don't have time for this, the specials at the market are going to e-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh!?"

The boy had brought out his phone as he cried out in shock, dropping as the electronic device clattered onto the stone pathway, followed by the boy that looked as though he had discovered that he only had a few minutes to live.

Depression covered his facial features as Mikoto looked on in some form of concern as she frowned despite such feelings. Was this guy really the one that had blocked her attack as if was nothing? What was his ability anyway?

"T-the specials…..they're over. Why, why did that Chihuahua have to be so vicious? Why misfortune, why?" The boy complained while on the floor, speaking words of defeat that made Mikoto narrow her eyes.

She had said that she was going to defeat him however had he even heard what she had said in the first place? It seemed as though he was more distracted by his own personal situation than anything else.

"Hey," Mikoto spoke towards the boy to get his attention. "Are you even listening to me? What's the big deal about missing a few specials today anyway?"

"What's the big deal? What's the big deal!? WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?! It's a big deal! You Tokiwadai princesses might not realise but the sustenance that comes with good food only taste better when it is cheap! As a Level 0, my funds are stretched enough as it is meaning that any opportunity lost is an opportunity wasted!" The boy cried out in pure despair as he sniffled slightly, rubbing his eyes to prevent the tears from falling as he picked up his cell phone and started to trod along.

"Wait a minute there mister!"

Mikoto though was having not one of it as she raced past the boy and stopped in front of him, angling her body downwards, ready to attack.

Yet the casual and somewhat disappointed stance of the boy in front of her was at completely contrasted with the tension and adrenaline that coursed through Mikoto's body. Her excitement seemed wasted and her nervousness pointless however for this enemy there was no way she could turn her back and merely put this issue aside.

Not on this boy or his ability.

"What!? Look, I have no idea who you are or what you want. I've already had a bad enough day as it is so I have to get to my dorm and at least make sure that I don't have to attend that many supplementary during summer break by being a somewhat diligent student!" The boy yelled towards her however it was Mikoto that pointed at him with an accusatory finger.

"I told you, my name is Misaka Mikoto! The Ace of Tokiwadai? The Electric Princess? Do those titles ring a bell? How about…the #3 Level 5 Railgun?" She asked with a sadistic grin towards the boy as he blinked once.

"Level…5?"

"That's right."

"The Railgun?"

"Well? Are you so surprised or in awe that you're in the presence of one of the Level 5s of this City?" asked Mikoto.

It was a purely psychological tactic. While she did not think that being a Level 5 meant anything to this boy, hearing the term definitely had some influence upon the students of Academy City. Some would cheer, back off, look in jealously or simply tremble in fear. But to the boy that had dispelled her attack, what would he do in response to the person in front of him?

What was the mindset of her natural enemy that could dispel her attacks?

"Huh. I thought you'd be taller."

"What?"

Mikoto looked dumbfounded towards the boy as he tilted his head towards her now that she had identified herself, otherwise not even moving or seeming uncomfortable in the slightest. It was as if he and Mikoto had been friends for ages and they were merely meeting once again; his posture completely calm and without tension.

His mood and attitude threw Mikoto's pace into the wind as she struggled to try and get things back on track as the boy merely asked something.

"Well Biri Biri, as nice it is to meet you, can I go now?"

"N-No!"

"Why?!"

Mikoto's face was red due to not really knowing how to take things from here. There had been so many options in her head however the atmosphere surrounding the boy seemed to be silently mocking her.

If faced with anyone else, she might have rectified that by showing her ability but not towards this boy because of his ability. It was because she could not shut him up that truly made her tremble in anger towards the fact that his mocking stance was nothing that she could fix.

She had to change that then as she stated her demands.

"I want you to fight me!"

"I refuse."

The reply was instantaneous and blunt as Mikoto gave a small smile.

"Hah, I thought that this would…wait you refuse?!"

Mikoto's face seemed stunned towards the boy as he deadpanned and gave her a look that suggested that there was no other option available to him.

"Of course I refuse! I want to get home! I've had a bad enough day without having someone like you mess it up more! Why do I have to fight you anyway? What's in it for me?" The boy asked and chained his questions together rapidly as Mikoto merely twitched in response. Sparks flew from her bangs as she merely gave her response without considering the person that was standing in front of her.

"I think I should have rephrased that then. I want you to fight me…and you get no say whatsoever!"

She fired an electric spear from her bangs towards the boy as his eyes went wide. He dropped his school bag and instantly threw his hand in front of his face, the electric spear striking it and sending sparks everywhere.

Yet the scene of the boy crying out in pain and collapsing did not fill her vision.

Instead, light smoke came from his outstretched right palm as his face suggested that he was on the verge of absolute confusion as Mikoto tensed slightly upon looking at the boy in front of her.

(I knew it. It's being blocked. But…it's like whatever calculations I put in are instantly destroyed. A disruption ability? Or maybe interfering with AIM fields?)

Whatever the case though, only one realisation filed her mind as she narrowed her eyes whilst feeling the exhilaration due to the said realisation washing over her, filling her with an energy that she could truly say she had not felt for a long time.

(Whatever the case….there is no guy this is a Level 0!)

"Wh-What the hell?! What are you doing? I could have died!" The boy yelled with fear (which was most likely faked thought Mikoto) as she merely stood her ground.

"Hardly. What is your ability? Level? I may as well know to size up my opponent." spoke Mikoto as the boy still held the right hand that had blocked her attack up near his face for protection.

"I told you! I'm a Level 0! Do you have some sort of grudge against me? Don't tell me that since I wanted to help you, you feel the need to strike down those that saw you when you were weak? What kind of over exaggerated character specs do you have?"

Mikoto responded with another lightning spear that shot towards the boy however he merely reacted once again by throwing his right hand in front of his face and once again, the result was the same.

"I refuse to believe that. Are you telling me that in this City of Science, there is a Level 0 that can destroy a Level 5's attack? What is the point of the Level hierarchy then? You have to be at least a Level 4….or maybe even…" Mikoto trailed off as she narrowed her eyes while looking towards the boy in front of her.

There was no way.

There was no way that _this _guy was a Level 5.

From what she knew of her rank, only the Accelerator and Dark Matter had the ability to defeat her head on because of their position. She had never met them yet however then the reverse could also be seen as true.

They had never met her.

So was this guy...either the #2 or #1? What did that say about that Chihuahua that was chasing him then if he was that Level? Could it be that one of the Level 5s was allergic to dogs? Why not simply push the animal away?

However the same was said for most of the Level 5s and Mikoto, save for Mental Out. Simply put, the only information she had on the other Level 5s was their gender and ability at least but there were exceptions such as the #6 and #7.

But even though she had that thought, she voiced what she was thinking so she could see exactly how her enemy would react.

"Are you a Level 5?"

"…"

The boy did not respond as he let out a sigh, dropping the hand towards his side and rubbing it through his hair as he shook his head.

Mikoto tensed and felt a massive grin come onto her face. It had been a while since she had been challenged in this way meaning that this was the perfect opportunity to truly let loose, although she felt as though she had to hold back at least a fraction.

After all, even in a battle against a Level 5, her going all out could definitely kill.

And then the boy in front of her spoke.

"Are you planning on listening to anything I say when I say that I'm a Level 0?"

"Give me your name and ability name. I can look it up in the Bank as easily as shopping but it won't change anything. _Not after you dispelled my attack like nothing_. I'm still going to fight you and there is no way I can simply accept you are a Level 0."

Mikoto said those words confidently as the boy responded with a serious gaze of his own.

"So there's no way to avoid a fight here? Even if I don't want to?"

There it was again; that feeling of exhilaration when facing this opponent. He might be an idiot for getting chased by a dog and falling out of a tree but this was someone that Mikoto could not merely pass off as 'someone' that she had met two days prior.

Their destinies were entwined and their meeting pre-determined.

This also meant that this fight was inevitable.

"You got that right."

Mikoto said that as she prepared herself.

This was between her and this boy.

"I see."

Between the Railgun and the ability that had dispelled her very power.

"Bye."

And then the boy turned and ran for his very life, showing his back towards the #3 as he raced through the park as if his life depended on it.

"Huh?"

Misaka Mikoto's mind went absolutely blank as she watched the boy run through the park, heading off into the distance as he slowly receded and became smaller in Mikoto's vision. There was nothing that she could say or do as she truly felt as though some part of her was incapable of doing anything as she saw the boy retreat.

And as Mikoto's eyebrow twitched and she felt herself being mocked due to the back that was getting further and further away. She slightly let out a chuckle as she stood in the middle of the pathway before unleashing her hidden fury into the air.

"Oi! Get back here and face me like a man you coward!"

"Those who run away live to see another day!"

The boy shouted back a smart ass comment however the idiom that he shouted back may have only made the situation worse as Mikoto trembled with rage as she took that first step in pursuit.

She leaped through the air, using her magnetism to cling onto street lights as she jumped from one to another while yelling through the air.

"Get back here and fight me!"

"No! And here I thought that this day could not get any worse! Why do I have to endure this sort of punishment?! What have I done? Such misfortune!"

And the only thing that Misaka Mikoto could do in response to the boy's shout was fire another lightning spear as the boy merely destroyed the attack in mid-air as he stuck out his right hand in response.

This only served to increase the punishment that Mikoto was determined to dish out.

And on that afternoon on June 19th, the chase began.

* * *

By the evening though, the chase had ended as Misaka Mikoto barely made it to her dorm and managed to escape curfew.

If anything, as people watched her in surprise and shock as she slightly limped through the Tokiwadai Dorm in District 7, the one thing that stood out about her was her extremely tired face and the massive amount of sweat that covered her entire body.

Hair stuck to her face and it seemed as though she was on the verge of collapsing as she trudged up the stairs to her room, each step seeming further and further away from each other as she struggled to reach her room.

Why was it on the second floor? Did the world hate her in some way?

No, this was of her own making. She was sure the Dorm Manager would want to speak to her however Mikoto had barely had the time to think up a good excuse.

After all, the 4 hour chase had only ended after the boy had bravely (or stupidly) decided to jump into the river below an iron bridge that they had happened to pass. He had been submerged for some time, Mikoto fearing that her opponent had drowned himself by accident however in the distance; the figure of someone with spiky hair climbing onto the bank had filled her vision.

They had spent the next few minutes yelling at each other, only for the boy to run away after an Anti-Skill ship had shined their spotlight on him and asked him to cease movement.

Mikoto was amazed by the boy's stamina or more accurately, the fact that he had actually managed to outrun her.

She didn't care though as she opened the door to her room, tumbling inside and managing to make it to her bed.

"Misaka-san?"

Her roommate looked in from the bathroom towards her and seemed awfully surprised at the state that she was in, much like everyone else that had seen her walk into the Dorm. Mikoto grunted in response and awaited the inevitable question that was going to come towards her.

"Wh-What have you been doing all this time?"

Mikoto though only groaned and laid facing up towards the roof, covering her eyes with an arm in order to blot out the light that seemed a bit too bright this evening.

"I've been chasing a damn idiot. I swear the next time I'll get him. I swear it on my Level and on the name of Misaka Mikoto."

And even though the roommate wanted to hear some sort of explanation for that statement, there was one thing that she could only stare in wonder at.

And that was the small smile that had appeared on her face when she spoke those words.

* * *

**Ta da!**

**This was focused, as you can see, something that has only been referenced and not really expanded on. While we know that Touma and Mikoto met on June 17th, their future meetings have only been mentioned in passing. Although we know that there were chases, what was the ever important second meeting, when the challenge was offered and obviously rejected?**

**This was this then. In the beginning I felt as though, like magic when Touma first encountered it, Mikoto could want to try and rationalise what Imagine Breaker was and its effects in order to match what she was thinking however needed more data in order to do that and defeat Touma. Thus was the first bit and the source of her distraction and is important given how she still feels as though magic is a grey area for her. As Science rules, this was her rationalising a threat unknown to her.**

**The second bit was of course all the more important because it was their second meeting. Mikoto mentions being angry about Touma running away from little things in the novels so I wanted to have one of those mentioned here. Although I did mention a leopard. I couldn't resist. But a variety of misunderstandings happened here and I felt as though those misunderstandings were the very beginning of the early, complex relationship between boy and girl. And I guess it also shows that Touma as a character doesn't really think that Level defines you or represents you given how he reacts when Mikoto states her Level in order to intimidate him.**

**The third part was of course was the finale, setting the scene for Mikoto's future actions and perhaps the fact that the small smile she had serves as a message of acceptance of Touma as a rival for her in this stage of the game. It was subtle however that realisation even though she might not want to admit it is definitely important for her own growth.**

**However at the same time, I felt as though I had to mention Misaki here. Although she had only one line, given that fact that she knows that Touma met Mikoto, how much pain and not wishing for them to meet again was there in that one statement? However putting that aside, this was a centre Mikoto chapter.**

**How did you like it? After that 4 hour chase and due to where Mikoto knows where to find him, we already know what happened after right?**

**And as always,  
Review if you please**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**In this chapter alone, Touma was chased by a leopard (mentioned), Chihuahua, Level 5, security robot (mentioned), (delinquents were mentioned) and Anti-Skill. I get the feeling that life in Academy City was not what the brochure said it would be….**


	14. The Spark of New Light

**And yet here we are once again with this small short story project.**

**As I've previously said, this project is both something that is fuelled by your suggestions (this time around it is now) and my own ideas so when I run out of the latter, you can expect a lot more of the former! Whether or not that is a good thing is unknown however the point of the matter is that right here and now, we have another request!**

**The point of these requests is sort of a 'first come first serve' ideas however if you want seconds on your ideas, you're going to have to wait until I sift through some of the other ideas as well. I hope you guys understand. Even if one idea has popularity, I want to be fair to those that waited. But please note that I'm slowly getting to the requests but I want to change things every now and then and have my own ideas every now and then.**

**Checking out the reviews then is the best way to see whose 'request' has the best chance of being met first. Right now we've backtracked a bit as dragon rider's request came in two parts but here is the next one!**

**This request (and thus the basis of this story) came in from malandy then who asked:**

Oh! Freelancer Mages! London really is a magical country!

Interesting Venus Laser... I wonder if it's against the Science-Magic Treaty, 'cause its basis is the scientific properties of the planet, instead of the astrological ones...

'Could you add that chapter that you made and then removed from A Certain Unknown Level 0, here?

Or, a story on how New Light got started? 'Cause I sort of wanna see how people even stumble into the Magic side...

Well, whatever you do, hope you do well!

**Thanks very much to start off with and I hope that you guys look forward to what I have here, another sort of 'beginnings' chapter for those of you that are interested in this sort of thing! Even if you are waiting for different chapters or the like, I simply hope that you read this regardless.**

**And before I start, I'd like to thank three people.**

**The first is of course PokeRescue18. Using Heavy Object (I am getting too much into it), he's the Quenser to my Heivia (he is a protagonist in a sense) in a sense however I think we're on better terms than they are. So thanks so much man.**

**The second is to you, the reader. Using Index, you guys are the Judgment senpais and I am the kouhai. I have ideas swimming around however it is because of you that I can continue to type these. So thanks and I hope for your support in whatever I end up doing in BTL or ACUL0.**

**And third and finally, to you malandy. You took the time to read and review, something that not everyone does but because of such I hope that you really enjoy what I managed to make here in response to your request.**

**And apart from that, let's get this show on the road!**

**It's hard to believe that it's been 2 weeks since I updated this and a week since the last overall update to be honest…**

**So enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

First Exposure To A Magical Drug. _Ecstasy_In_Capability._

A perfect world only existed within the hearts of those naïve enough to think that there was a hero waiting for them around every corner, ready to overcome anything in order to place the world on the right rails should it leave them.

In reality though heroes hardly existed for the convenience of those that needed to be saved.

Villains though seemed to exist if only to satisfy the selfish wishes that filled their hearts.

They had something that they hated, wanted fulfilled or merely because they thought that taking the opposite path of a hero would be 'fun'. Whatever the case, the people that spat on the pride and dignity of the human race were unfortunately in the world that one lived in however to the luck of most people, there were very limited times where one would engage in their presence or company.

What was happening though in the barn in Edinburgh, Scotland was only an example of the villain's role in adding chaos to a world where people were happy to live without it.

A singular man, clad in bloody, casual clothes breathed heavily as he leaned in and sniffed his captive, taking in the scent of their skin and the feel of their hair.

The captive trembled in fear, tears rolling down their cheeks as the man stood back up and exhaled heavily, taking a step backwards and turning around, only to look at the person that was behind him.

The second captive stiffened immediately as the man leaned in as the captive tried to scramble away however it was no use. The man, stronger and bigger, grabbed the captive's hair and lifted them up into the light of the moon that shone through one window.

And the moonlight, like a serrated edge, carved light haphazardly to reveal the face of the captive.

The child's eyes were puffy from crying, snot covering the cloth that was covering their mouth as the child tried to struggle however unable to do so as the man pressed the child to the ground and slowly, ever so slowly, undid the buttons that were on his own shirt.

A small girl, huddled among the numerous captives in the barn (of which there were around 8 children around her age or older) felt something inside of her snap as she turned away, unable to do anything not bear the sight any longer.

She felt her breathing go faster and faster as she wore her primary school uniform, which she had been told was something along the level of elementary school in Japan, as she shifted in the hay at her feet.

Lessar, the small girl, had no idea where she was or what was going on in the room however from what she had seen over the past few days was enough to send her childish blood boiling in rage and disgust at the person that had captured them.

To be honest, she had no idea if she was still in Scotland because of the fact that the barn was far removed from what she thought of Edinburgh. The urban city seemed to have a complete contrast to what was underneath her feet and where she thought she was but that hardly mattered towards the tiny girl.

She merely wanted to escape.

She wanted to get up and run as fast and hard as she could away from this man that had taken her off the street without anyone looking or noticing otherwise.

It was as if the man had been concealed, hidden from view when she had been taken off the street in what should have been obvious but her plight had been ignored. She had been abandoned by the world she knew and whatever had caused those people to look away from what had been something someone would have intervened in naturally was something that she wanted to use herself.

She had been stolen and no one knew the wiser. And however the man had managed to make sure that everyone 'looked away' from the kidnapping, Lessar wanted that for her very self.

And she wanted to use it to make sure that this man suffered.

She was unharmed, as were two other girls with her however the fourth girl was hardly such, the mental strain causing her own body to have frozen up and cause her breathing to be oddly fast, a clear sign of hyperventilation.

The four boys, again in the same position and age as the small Lessar only had one harmed between them and the other three unharmed physically. The mental toll that this ordeal would have on them all was obvious as the man brought out a knife from within his pants pocket.

The moonlight shone against his bare chest and Lessar once again found herself watching in disgusted fascination at what was carved on his chest and back.

They were symbols. Lessar did not know the language or what they meant however the circle that they were placed inside she knew all too well. She had seen enough movies to known a pentagram when she saw one and two were placed on the man, one on his chest and the other on his back.

Scabs gave form to the pentagrams, dried blood giving shape to the symbol as the man looked down on his own chest and out of sight of Lessar, grunted as he used the blade's edge to carve into his skin once more.

Lessar turned her head away from the man's actions and met the eyes of the other girls that were in the barn as well, seeing that they too had focused entirely on the man and met Lessar's eyes when they met hers.

They had exchanged names already when the man had left once before, using their feet in order to draw letters in the hay.

The one with brown hair, with the small green headband that allowed the pale skin of her forehead to shine in the darkness was called Lancis.

The one with the blond hair and the blue eyes that shook fearfully was called Floris.

Lessar herself, with long black hair and blue eyes looked back at them and indicated with her head towards the ropes that tied their hands behind their backs. The man grunted in pain and both Floris and Lancis turned their heads back towards him as Lessar struggled to prevent herself from doing so.

She had to focus on getting out of here and no matter what was happening with the man behind her, she had to focus on that one point with all her might.

Because she felt as if she did not do so then she truly would get caught up in whatever it was that was going on here.

She tapped her foot lightly in the hay at her feet, rustling it slightly as the attention of the others was grabbed as Lessar silently moved towards the two girls, turning her back at them so they could get the ropes that tied her hands there and unfortunately getting a complete look at what the man had done to himself.

He sighed, almost as if contemplating the incomplete job that his work was however even so, the chill that Lessar felt across her entire body seemed to plunge her body into the icy water of pure fear.

The moon illuminated the fresh blood that was rolling down his chest, giving an oddly deathly sensation within the entire barn. While they had all been terrified, the fact that the man had harmed himself so easily yet seemed to sigh in resignation threw them off completely.

Who was this man?

What was he doing?

A completely new scar filled the man's chest; the pentagram that had been on his chest being put within the newly cut circle that ran with the man's blood. It was deep enough to cause most of the man's chest to be died with the colour of red despite the pale light of the moon.

Numerous other questions filled the minds of the child but it was the man that had truly frightened them. It was not the fact that they had been captured. It was not the fact that they were in his presence.

It was because his actions seemed to suggest that he did not care, as if what was happening to him and the harm that he had done to himself was nothing more than a pre-determined route that he was to blindly go down.

The terror and psychological pressure that weighed down on their minds was perhaps the thing that was truly going to drive them insane.

However the man paid no mind to the victims that were watching from afar, only turning towards the small child in front of him and turning the blade of the knife towards them as the child's eyes immediately went wide, shaking in fear as the trembling that filled their body caused rustling in the hay they were sitting on.

And then the man spoke.

"Your turn."

The man advanced and that was all that Lessar needed to turn her head away from what it was that she was seeing. She turned back towards the girls of Floris (who was older than her Lessar assumed) and Lancis and felt the ties that were around her hand to loosen slightly.

She pulled the ropes apart, releasing her hands fully as she rubbed her hands and felt the bruising that was there. She felt like making a remark about the beauty of her youthful skin however the anxiety of what was happening around her prevented her from doing so.

She was no hero or someone with massive ability.

She was merely a primary schooler who had been wrapped up in this hell that surrounded her. Someone who wanted to escape no matter what.

However Lessar's first thoughts were not to immediately jump up and head towards the doors of the barn. While they were surely locked and as Lessar dealt with the ties at her feet, there had been people that had been willing to let her go even though there was that risk that she would leave and run off without them.

There was no way that Lessar was going to leave behind people like that, people who within seconds had become her comrades in this ordeal that she and they faced.

She moved her hands towards the cloth that was around her mouth and felt the breath of fresh air fill her lungs without having to pass through the cloth medium. Her entire body seemed to give into the relaxing sensation that was that feeling but she knew that there was no time for this.

Lessar moved her hands back behind her as she fiddled with the hand ties of both Floris and Lancis. While they both had dealt with her ties, the situation was harder for the younger Lessar as she tried her best in order to get in between both of the knots and untie them.

And all the while, she watched in horror as the man who had his side turned towards Lessar and thus was not looking at her at all, using the very tip of the knife to dig into the skin of the child that he had gripped before as a faint trickle of blood seemed to run down the child's exposed chest.

The child tried to struggle however the man had anticipated such an action, having resorted to grabbing the child's head to prevent movement, seeming as though a simple squeeze would be enough to crush the child's skull into mush. All the while, the man continued with the knife as if tracing carefully into the child's skin.

Lessar felt her fingernails dig into the ropes as she pulled with all her might, managing to loosen the knots as she felt both Lancis and Floris pull away and rip their hands apart and free from the bonds that had trapped them.

Lessar wasted no time herself, moving as quietly as she could into the shadows of the barn where she knew she would not be seen, something that both Lancis and Floris did as they pressed their bodies against the wall of the barn and watched as the man pulled the knife from the child's body. He lifted the child into the air, pulling into full view what he had carved on the chest of the small boy.

The pentagram within the circle was much more detailed than the one that was on the man. Letters and other symbols that the girls did not recognise were on the face of the circle itself and around the edges, giving a sort of cult feeling towards the entire endeavour. Was this what they were there for?

All thoughts of escaping were thrown into the air as the girls watched the man and the boy as a liquid ran down not from the boy's face but rather from his pants and onto the floor. The distinct smell of urine filled the air as the man watched the liquid and merely looked back towards the boy that he was holding.

And those eyes that he gave him truly sparkled with a sick intensity as he spoke.

"I hope that your bladder isn't as weak as that. I'll be using that body for a while boy. But first…blood must be given for the offering."

And with that word, the man instantly pointed a finger towards the nearest girl, the only one that was inside the room with them who was still bound as a new light source entered the room. The terrible warmth that was the small flame that appeared on the end of the man's finger immediately increased the tension in the room.

It was like he was a stage magician, using cheap tricks in order to entertain however right now, those tricks were being used to terrify and crush any hope of survival that those children had.

Or was this something else?

The shattered hope that was the small flame on the end of the man's finger seemed to float into the air as the man held forward a palm and seemed to 'push' the small ball of flame through the air. It followed the direction that it was 'pushed', floating and falling as it headed straight towards the girl that the man had in his sights.

A muffled scream came out of the girl's mouth as Lessar, Floris and Lancis, as well as the other 4 children that had been captured with them watched, unable to do anything as the flame ball floated and followed the girl as she tried to escape.

Her attempt to stand up was futile; her legs were tied and she fell to the ground as she rose her head towards the shadows.

Lessar had no proof of what the girl was looking at however the thorn that stabbed into her chest knew without a shadow of a doubt that the person that she was looking at was her. Lessar stared back at the puffy eyes of the girl, frozen stiff as her hands gripped the wood of the back of the barn.

Numerous feelings shot through Lessar's chest however it was the pure feeling of hopelessness and guilt that was the most powerful, threatening to cause Lessar to scream merely from the emotions that filled her.

It was hopeless.

She was powerless.

And there was nothing that she could do about it.

And ever so slowly, the flame ball approached closer and closer towards the girl. It hovered right above her and pressed up against her skin.

Then the girl rose her head with another muffled scream as the fireball seemed to _enter _into her skin, penetrating deeper and deeper into the skin until it was gone. The only thing that remained that was there in the first place was the small burn mark that covered her skin where the fireball had touched.

But the pain of the girl was not over yet as she began to spasm on the ground, as if trying to eject the fireball from the very depths of her body with her movements.

Her body though seemed to have other ideas as parts of it seemed to glow red and orange, those screams being muffled as the girl by pure chance managed to move the loose cloth away from her mouth.

And the ear piercing scream that shot through the air was enough to start the gears of the breaking of those fragile minds of those watching.

The inhumane scream echoed in the air painfully as the girl seemed to look back towards where Lessar and the others were. The girls got a good look at the girl as she stared back at them however what they saw were not the pupils of someone that was truly scared.

It was the slightly burning of a flame that was beyond those very eyes. The indifferent shine of red and orange beyond those eyes was present for only a moment before the girl collapsed, the scent of a homely smell coming through the air, like a local barbeque or neighbourhood gathering feast.

However the context of what came with the smell plunged those who had already broken further into despair.

It was the smell of burning flesh.

The one realisation and the fact that the other 5 children in the room besides Lessar (disregarding the boy that had had that weird pentagram circle carved into his skin) would serve no purpose if the man only wanted that boy he had carved into only seemed to make Lessar understand one thing.

They were only needed for one thing.

7 children.

7 sacrifices.

"N…."

Lessar felt herself speak even though she knew she should have kept her mouth shut. Why did she speak? Why did she choose to reveal the position of not only herself but also the people that she had managed to free from their bonds?

If she gave herself anyway, what was the point of all that?

Wouldn't she be subject to the strange fate that had been caused by that man, that _disease _to the name of those that lived in the United Kingdom?

But she didn't care about anything of that.

The only thing that Lessar remembered was the look of that girl's eyes before they had been burnt from the inside out.

"NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Lessar screamed and raced out from the shadows. She had no idea what she was doing. The only thing that filled her mind was that she had to do something in order to stop this madness and bring an end to it all even though for her that was surely impossible.

But that still didn't stop her.

Lessar ran with all her might as the man seemed surprised at the fact that she had managed to escape, holding his finger forward once again as the deadly fireball appeared on the end of that finger, ready to be directed towards Lessar and strike her down.

However the nimbleness of a child was underestimated. Lessar reached the man first, grabbing and slamming her head into a place where she knew it would hurt the most for the man.

Her head rammed in between the man's legs as he groaned, dropping the boy he was holding to the ground and falling to his knees.

"You little-!"

Lessar's mind though was moving at a monstrous speed as she used her tiny, sharp fingernails to scratch the man's face with what little strength she could manage. The man yelled in pain as he pushed her down and pointed that finger with the fireball on the end of it to her face.

"Understand your r-bfhfhhfh!?"

The man never got out another word as a small foot slammed into his neck, cutting off his air as he turned and looked to see that Floris was standing in front of him, her expression deathly pale and frantic however the fear was gone.

And in its place was the raw determination of someone that wanted to live on.

The man moved the fireball towards Floris and the girl froze however Lessar moved, grabbing what skin she could from the other hand that was pinning her down and sending her teeth into the man's skin. She pulled away, hard and fast like a Band-Aid as the taste of blood entered her mouth.

It was the blood of this thing that took the shape of a man and it made her sick to the very core. It was the blood of this thing that had taken the name of those that lived in peace within this country she loved so much and dragged it through the mud by existing.

Again, the man roared however he kept his focus on Floris as he held the fireball in front of him, looking as though nothing was wrong as he opened his palm, ready to push the fireball to the target that he deemed to be the one to strike down first. But once again, that attempt was deemed futile.

This time, it was Lancis that strode forward, throwing hay into the fireball that was in front of the man. The hay flew through the air and into the fireball, catching fire instantly as it fell back towards the ground, burning to a crisp and throwing small bits of fire towards the man.

He leaned back in surprise however that was enough for those small amounts of fire to fall to the ground and catch fire to the other small pieces of hay on the ground.

Fire rose and grew as the barn's hay served a function just as effective as gasoline, spreading the flames further and further into the barn as the man watched what was happening with an enraged expression on his face.

"No! Damn, damn, damn! You pieces of trash, do you even remotely understand the nature and preparations that were needed for this!?"

The girls though did not care though as they took the moment's time that the man took looking away to race to different parts of the barn and grab the other children that were there. While the boy that had his chest carved into was not dealt with, it seemed as though the man had a special interest in not harming him any further meaning that for the moment he was safe.

Lessar was the one to reach one of the other boys that was inside the barn, grabbing and trying to use her teeth to rip apart the restraints that held him in place however the voice from the side made her turn in that direction. The man in front of her spoke with a seething tone that literally radiated his extreme anger.

"You think that I'll let you get away with this!? Huh? DO YOU!?"

A kick slammed into her chest as the fact that her teeth were around the boy's restraints was enough to cause them to rip as she flew through the air and landed on the ground. She tumbled and groaned in pain, struggling to stand as the man strode over towards her and lifted her by the hair.

She yelled in pain as she felt herself move through the air, only to feel as though she was floating if only for an instant.

The instant though was gone the moment it appeared as the man's throw of Lessar slammed her into Floris who had been successful in getting the other boy free as he too moved towards the entrance of the barn with the other boy that Lessar had freed.

Lancis looked up and saw their plight as she ripped through the final boy's restraints with her teeth and raced over towards the two girls as the boy she had saved moved towards rescuing the one that had been cut by the man. And all the while the flames in the barn danced viciously as Lancis reached the girls.

"Come on! We have to get up! Y-You have to get up!" Lancis cried with watery eyes towards the girls however it was Floris that responded as she turned with a pained expression towards Lancis.

"Watch out!"

Lancis turned a bit too late as the man sent a fist into her face. The small child fell with arms splayed everywhere as she hit the ground, blood coming from her mouth as she tried to stand. Floris was the first to recover and tried to reach her however she was unable to as the man slammed a boot into her stomach.

"You think that this is funny do you? Look at this….those other tools managed to escape. And they left you behind! What a farce. After you rescued them, they managed to leave you behind! It will be easy to find them though. Reporters and the newspapers are excellent these days for finding those that suffer traumatic events." The man's tone was shaky as if he was trying to regain some form of composure. He ground his boot into Floris's stomach as he spoke, looking down on them as the barn burnt.

"But we already know what's going to happen to you. Ironic how the heroes that you were have you rewarded like this. Perish in the flames children and burn in hell."

"You…."

Lessar on the ground spoke as she moved her body that had been pummelled twice however that was enough to make her get down for the count. Yet despite that she moved, crawling on the ground as she gripped some hay in front of her while speaking.

"You are that one that is going to be doing that."

The man lifted his foot off Floris and turned towards Lessar, looking at her and then pulling forward the finger that had created the fireball as the flames destroying the barn burnt behind him.

And once again, the powerful man spoke as he looked towards Lessar on the ground.

"Hardly. You are the ones that are going to be doing that."

"No…we're not."

"That's….going to be you….you monster."

Both Floris and Lancis on the ground spoke with voices filled with pain from the wounds that they had received. Even though it had hardly been something that should have caused them this hardship, their small form and build was enough to prevent them from moving. The heat around them grew in intensity from the hay around them catching and burning yet the heat from their gazes seemed to rival even that.

However the man did not respond at all towards those gazes, the threat that he felt from them being nothing more than insignificant towards him.

"This is why I hate children."

"Then you're going to love me."

A sudden voice came from behind the man as he began to turn however the sound of something squelching filled the air as everyone instead the hot barn went silent as they looked at what had happened in front of them.

Someone had appeared behind the man and had attracted his attention.

"Eh?"

And they had done something that seemed to crush the chaos that had filled the night up until then.

"Y….."

That much was clear with the _sight of a metal spear piercing through the man's chest_.

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?!"

The man's scream ripped through the air like butter as the person that was standing behind the man pulled out the spear. The only thing that allowed the man to stand was ripped away from him as he fell to his knees, blood flowing out of the wound as he groaned. His breathing was heavy and erratic as the person that had stabbed him knelt down by his side.

"I've been looking for you, you know. It seems as though other people have caught on to what you were doing but I expect that they will be here soon. I'm just glad that I got in this one blow."

The voice was female and the illuminated figure that was shone in the flames seemed to show that the girl was older than the girls that were lying in the hay, at least being in late primary school or the beginning stages of high school. Her hair shone with dangerous silver light and she was wearing what seemed to be some modern headphones that looked like an organ's tubes.

"It hurts…it hurts…..so much!"

The man cried out in pain however the girl did not care as she held the blades of her spear, which had suddenly opened up against the man's face as she wiped the man's blood back onto his face. The man groaned once again and the whimpering that came out of his mouth was at complete odds with the confident aura that he had given off previously.

"Shut up. I don't need your disgusting body fluids staining this new spiritual item I put so much work into."

She slapped the man in the face as he sat in the flames, the girl rising and noticing the forms of the smaller girls that were lying on the ground in front of her. She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head as the roof on the barn unleashed a raindrop that splattered against her face.

Lessar, Floris and Lancis all looked up in surprise to see the rainclouds above them…that were _indoors_. They sprayed the confines of the barn with water that slowly extinguished the flames as the older girl merely stood up.

She said nothing as she looked at the girls beneath her, holding the spear in front of her. She moved it so that it was pointed towards the girls beneath her and they all flinched.

This girl, whoever she was had dealt with the man that had captured them all so easily. While they had managed to do some damage, it was hardly anything that had been significant so there was no question what would happen if they were made to face this girl.

No to mention that they were in no position to even fight back.

Meaning that the person in front of them was the person that was to judge their fate.

And she moved.

* * *

"Why?"

The trio of girls sat on the hill in Edinburgh that overlooked the barn that had been burnt to an absolute crisp. The figures of the boys that had abandoned them were nowhere to be seen however more figures of people moving towards the barn filled the vision of Lessar.

Floris had spoken though as they watched the people in the barn drag out the man that had tormented them so. They said something however anything that was being said was lost on the girls not only due to distance but also because they were focusing on something else.

"I saw the boys leave. But it seems from the way that they ran that they were hardly the ones to free themselves. So I could ask you the same thing. Why did you save them and not yourselves first?"

Their judge, the girl with silver hair and the spear that had ended whatever they were a part of spoke towards the trio that sat on the hill.

"W-Well…." Lancis was the one that spoke however she turned towards Lessar for an answer. The reason though was obvious, mainly because of the fact that the very same question was probably one that Lancis had asked regarding why Lessar had not run away at the very last moment.

It seemed as though Lessar understood what it was that Lancis was hesitant about so she stood up, grunting as she did so as she watched the girl that had saved her. Now that she got a good look though, it was clear that the girl was older but that hardly mattered anyway.

She had saved them.

This meant that she deserved an answer.

"Why would I leave these people? Despite that scum there, we are all part of this country. There is nothing else to think about when looking at something that binds us. We are all a part of the United Kingdom and all wanted to live here in peace. That was taken away from us and I wanted it back so badly. So what about the others? There was someone that… did not make it alive. She can never go back home anymore. She can't have what we have and have managed to get back."

Lessar spoke her voice wavering ever so slightly however it seemed to her as though the reason that she had forged in her heart was going to drive her. She was only in primary school and the ideas that she had could be thought to be naïve but those were the ideas that had driven her in that one moment.

And those were the ideals that she had held within that hell she had faced.

"It was probably because of that. So we could all return home to the country we love so much."

Lessar finished and the girl that had saved them looked towards the other girls that were looking at Lessar with surprised expression before seeming to look towards their own souls for an answer as they turned back towards the older girl with a similar determination in their eyes as Lessar had.

The girl was silent for a moment before sighing and stepping forward so that she watched the people moving into dragging the scum that had defiled the name of the United Kingdom and its residents with his actions out of the barn.

"I can tell that you all seem to hold that idea, in your hearts or some variation. This makes this somewhat difficult for me. A team of 4 seems to be a bit too much. But I'm game."

Lessar, Floris and Lancis turned towards each other with frowns on their faces as confusion, the last emotion that they thought would be the one they would feel today, washed over them. But before they could ask anything of the girl in front of them, the girl stabbed the ground in front of her with that spear and turned around.

"We're the same. I think the same about you and this country. We need a change from people like that man who think that they can disgrace this country that we love so much. But in your current stage, it seems as though there is little you can do. I'm sure that you felt that today. Would you like to change that?"

Those last 6 words resounded in the heads of the girls that hung onto every word that the older girl said as she grinned.

And with that grin on her face, she held out a hand in front of her, ready to be taken by those that were wanting that power to overcome their weakness and ensure that the country that they loved so much was saved from those people that felt as though they could step on it with no regards to the lives of others.

They all wanted to best for their country.

However the girls of Lessar, Floris and Lancis did not have the power to bring about the change by making sure that the best result was achieved for that very country.

But was there something that could allow them to change that?

Was there something out there that would allow them to carve their wishes onto their hearts and act in accordance with them?

Was this the start of a path that would change them to their very core?

"My name is Bayloupe. And I ask you, what do you know about magic?"

* * *

**And you guys know the rest.**

**The end! This was a really fun idea to work with, mainly because it was tense from the get go. But it was tense in a way that there was no way to understand for the girls that were Lessar, Floris and Lancis what was going on. That was why questions about what the man was doing and the cause of the girl's death were not important. You guys can have a guess on both of those but the idea that I had in my head was pretty ridiculous.**

**Firstly though, I want to ask, did you think that I hit it right on the mark? For the girls of New Light, was this a good start to see how they came across magic? Naturally, magicians in this series have a wish that they cannot recover by normal means. Thus they turn to magic to achieve these goals that are out of their reach. So how do they discover it? Do they tamper or is it something that seems to spread from one to another as was the case here?**

**Given the prominence of New Light members during the British Halloween and the skills shown by them, it hardly seems like something where you can 'practice for a year and end up being good'. So I wanted them to experience the chance for magic at a young age, given the chance to learn about it through their leader Bayloupe.**

**But how does one merely come across it? That was the point of this story and I hope that you enjoyed it for what it was worth. Of course as the girls have gotten better with their powers and become more 'responsible' in achieving their goals this origin story was a nice insight to what could have been before everything happened.**

**But as this served as an origin story, it serves to reinforce how the new members of New Light have changed the nature of what Bayloupe was probably looking for. After all, the steel glove was not named nor was any type of magic explicitly referenced. This lack of understanding and then the gaining of it through discovering magic was the important point here.**

**And for those upset for me killing the girl, I apologise. The villain survived though however the fate that he has with Necessarius is a different story!**

**And as always,  
Review if you please.**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**Strangely, the story turned extremely dark with the nature of the incident faced. I hope though that it was a good story for those that read it. And somehow… I feel like doing another dark one…**


	15. The Experiment - Doll 8912

**It's hard to say whether this story was something that is dark or not.**

**I was going for light-heartened one-shots at first. As you can probably tell from the first two chapters, this worked out alright and then I reached The Endless Hell chapter. I want to write another one of those but in truth, having Touma's despair shown like that really hit me hard. I guess though the severity and the fact that it did not only goes to show not only what Touma went through but the hidden darkness of this series.**

**Last chapter also has that as well, although on the Magic side. But even in the main story, this dark side of magic is sort of half mentioned, what with the method to reach a Magic God and Index's erasure of memories.**

**But then I thought of this small thing and as you can probably tell, don't expect the usual comedic moments in this. I want to return to those but I hope that you can read this and then go back to Chapter 10 and still have a good laugh. Of course I hope that I do this well (or at least you guys think I do) with A Certain Unknown Level 0.**

**But I've gone off on a tangent here.**

**And I also guess these are a bunch of one-shots now that really move all over the place in regards to whether they make you laugh, cringe or merely realise what it is that some characters go through in this series. So here we go with this original idea!**

**And before I start I'd like to thank PokeRescue18. You think the genres are confusing? Think about how it is for him who has to beta read all of this! Seriously man, thanks for all your hard work and contribution to both of my ToAru projects. It was him that reminded me that this sort of matches a Halloween theme for me where I am because of time zones meaning it's the 31st today. So this chapter is somewhat appropriate given the theme. So from both me and him, Happy Halloween!**

**However I also want to thank you, the reader. Whether you came to this site upon hearing about this project that I've started or from the other project that I was running; I really want you to know that I am in your debt. So I hope that I can satisfy that by responding to your reviews! But in all seriousness, thanks.**

**And from me (who is really wondering whether to say that this is dark or not?!), I only have one thing to ask from you.**

**Enjoy (well for the most part I have no idea if this is something you can 'enjoy'…maybe just read and make your own opinion about it!)**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

A Certain Unnamed And Wondrous Flicker of Life Extinguished. _Guinea_Pig_Perspective:_8912_

Misaka #8912 heard her feet on the stone of the pathway which she had walked on stop, unable to comprehend what it was that she was seeing.

The boy (at least that was what she assumed based on the fact that the person was wearing a male uniform) in front of her was not paying attention to her however the reason for such was clear.

She could barely hear his voice or see his face and she did not pay attention towards the boy's uniform at all but the fact of the matter was that the boy himself had somehow managed to get his head stuck in a cleaning robot.

How in the world had that happened in the first place? Misaka #8912 had no idea in the slightest and from what the knowledge from Testament told her, the need to stick one's head in a cleaning robot was something that seemed to be socially frowned upon. While the Sisters, due to their nature were not supposed to attract attention to themselves because of their lifestyle and circumstances, Misaka #8912 felt as though this was hardest for her.

This was mainly because of the fact that she was the first Sister to be a part of the project and thus the Experiment outside.

She was the first Sister to feel the wind against her face and the feeling of water sprayed against her from a bubbler. She was the first Sister to see wildlife for the first time and the first Sister to be a part of the scientific landscape that was Academy City.

And of course, she was the first Sister to see someone with their head stuck in a cleaning robot.

Due to the fact that previously 8911 Experiments had been conducted indoors and thus 8911 Sisters had been killed through such a medium, the processes needed to conduct Experiments outside were a little different.

Misaka #8912 was not to interact with people due to lack of experience and it was only through observation and slow input of data through Testament that she would be able to be what one knew as 'socially acceptable'. The lines for her regarding that were hazy right now, only general guidelines of behaviour and conduct however the situation in front of her threw that all into the wind.

What was she supposed to do?

"Misaka has somewhere to be however deontological ethical theories state that Misaka should help out based on duties and actions remarks Misaka to herself upon realising that she is alone. However does this situation call for such actions? questions Misaka."

The sunset in Academy City gave an orange light over the landscape that she was in, reflecting off the military goggles that Misaka #8912 wore now that she was alone. The heat of the sunlight tickled her skin and gave her warmth however upon realising that too much exposure increased the chance of being overly exposed to UV rays, she moved towards the shade as she watched the figure of the boy in front of her.

He seemed to be struggling to get out. Such was evident in the fact that his legs were kicking all over the place as the cleaning robot tried to move away but unable to as the boy dug his feet into the ground to prevent himself from moving. He was still dragged along and at the same time giving Misaka #8912 a strange sense of obligation towards helping the boy.

She walked up towards the cleaning robot, again feeling the warmth of the setting sun against the back of her neck as the sound of turning gears seemed to resonate within her ears strongly. There was a muffled yelling from within the robot however so distorted and muffled that Misaka #8912 was sure that if she heard the voice normally, she would never recognise it.

Regardless though the incoherent shout of "…..misfortune!?" seemed to erupt from the belly of the cleaning robot as Misaka #8912 crouched down next to the robot.

"Hello? states Misaka to get your attention."

The legs seemed to stop moving, something that meant that the cleaning robot started to drag the boy along as the boy frantically tried to dig his feet into the ground again to stop his travels. However as a result of Misaka #8912's voice, shouts came from the inside of the robot that only seemed to partially get through.

"Hello? …someone there? …-san….greatly appreciate…..assistance here!" The shouts were muffled but enough to provide Misaka #8912 with the necessary information to make a judgment.

"Of course replies Misaka however Misaka wonders how you managed to get your head stuck in the cleaning robot in the first place."

"…wallet! …sucked it up…..bastard!" The enraged shouts gave Misaka #8912 an idea of the situation almost immediately as she put a hand on the face of the cleaning robot however frowned at the same time.

What, this guy had lost his wallet? Then why in all that was rational did he choose to stick his head inside the cleaning robot?

"Misaka intends to help however why did you stick your head in the cleaning robot? asks Misaka while wondering the state of mind you had." Misaka #8912's words were rational however the moment that she said them, the lowering of the tone of voice that the boy had seemed to suggest that he was extremely down over the case in point that was being discussed.

"….don't….talk about it. Can't we…..accept…..my life sucks!? Please…smelly fish…..leftover faeces and cabbage…here!" Again, the incoherent words that came out of the boy's mouth were followed by what seemed like a scream due to having something enter his mouth without his permission as Misaka #8912 sighed.

Was this the normal for Academy City?

She looked up and spotted a cleaning robot in the distance heading over towards the location of the boy and the problem that he was having with the cleaning robot himself so she truly thought that maybe she would have a better understanding of the boy's thought processes provided she stuck her own head inside the cleaning robot too.

She shook her head though as she fully put her palm on the face of the cleaning robot.

"Misaka apologises first though for what Misaka is about to do reports Misaka before acting."

"Wait…..that me-maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?"

Misaka #8912 responded in the only way that she knew how to in the situation, something that was perhaps also reflective of some lack of information that was provided in the Testament. While logic seemed to suggest that Misaka #8912 act using whatever she had at her disposal and make sure that she completed her role doing so, her choice of action seemed to be at odds with what the boy had in mind.

After all, as Misaka #8912 tried to malfunction to robot using a burst of electricity as an ability that she had gained from the Original, the cry of pain and yelling from the inside of the robot seemed to suggest that such a course of action was frowned upon.

"What…doing!?"

"Helping, replies Misaka in an honest tone."

"Not…helping! Stick…..your head…cleaning robot….would like electricity….get you out!?" the muffled reply that came out once again truly puzzled Misaka #8912 as she listened towards the words being directed towards her.

From what was being suggested, it seemed that the boy wanted her to stick her own head inside a cleaning robot to see what it would feel like for her to have electricity pass through her to get her out however she merely shook her head.

"Unfortunately, Misaka cannot do that responds Misaka. Misaka has a schedule to keep after all responds Misaka." Misaka #8912 responded once again honestly towards the boy that in front of her and got a reply that she was hardly expecting given her response.

"Really!? ….so sorry! ….not keeping you, am I?" The voice inside genuinely seemed worried for the person on the other side despite the fact that he had his head stuck in a cleaning robot, something that made Misaka #8912 frown.

Usually, did not self-interest and the situation at hand dictate that one regard their own safety above the convenience of others? Was the information in Testament wrong? While it did seem as though that some information was incomplete, especially around situation regarding people with heads stuck inside cleaning robots, it seemed unlikely that the Testament was wrong in this case.

What did that mean for this person inside the cleaning robot? Were they an anomaly that did not fit within common sense or rationality in actions?

"Your actions contradict social norms Misaka points out clearly. Why is it that you are acting in a way that contravenes to what normal people would do? asks Misaka." Misaka #8912 posed her question towards the boy inside the robot while tilting her head in confusion as she saw the legs connected to the body inside twitch towards her as if shrugging.

"….talking about? We're...all individuals…..right?"

The boy's response made Misaka #8912 silent as she kept her head on the cleaning robot while a wind blew through her hair and caused it to flutter against her face and the goggles on her head. The wind itself flowed around her head and gave her hair a bit more of a flutter. It brushed lightly against her face and the smell of the world around her entered her nose.

Those responses that she had about the world were something that was unique to her. She felt someway about the world that the other Misakas in the Experiment were unlikely to feel even though what they were experiencing was all the same. Her own thoughts were surely be spread across the Misaka Network meaning that they would be shared.

But did that mean that those very feelings were reciprocated? Accepted and felt the same?

It hardly seemed to like the case.

As such, even though the Sister that was Misaka #8912 felt this way, even though she could be automatically reproduced at the press of a button given proper machinery and chemicals were prepared, even though she was a borrowed mind in a borrowed body, even though she had a value of 180,000 Yen and there were many more in stock, she still felt as though what she was feeling was something that only she could feel.

The experiences were the same.

But the perceptions would always be different.

Was there something that the Sisters would all feel the same about? Or were they always going to be slowly showed their own individuality through their own perceptions?

Taking that into account, what did that mean? Did that mean that they were slowly becoming their own people despite being created? That their different perceptions to the same experiences gave them the chance to evolve and become individuals as the boy said everyone was?

Misaka #8912 had that thought within her mind and then threw it away. The reason of course was natural.

_She had a schedule to keep after all._

"It seems as though Misaka has spent too much time on this issue reports Misaka with some regret. Although we could not reach a conclusion, there were some things that Misaka could have asked you as an anomaly to see your opinion states Misaka honestly. _We won't be meeting again_ confides Misaka in you with some regret."

Misaka #8912 stood up and turned her back however the words of the boy within the robot made her stop.

"Wait."

She paused however did not know why. There was only one reason she was created and it was not to ensure that she had second thoughts about her own state of mind regarding what she was created for. Anything else that was a part of such emotions was nothing more than a hindrance towards her otherwise logical thought processes, honed and refined as a machine.

So why did she stop?

Not even Misaka #8912 knew the answer to that as she heard the voice once more from inside the robot.

"….leaving me!? …..shock me and run? ….outta here pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssssseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

The boy screamed as Misaka #8912 sighed, unable to think of a solution towards the problem that the boy was facing however decided to turn back and report one thing towards that troubled boy regarding the situation he found himself in.

"You might want to hurry up though states Misaka. The cleaning robot approaching has an ETA of 1 minute 56 seconds."

And with that, Misaka #8912 turned her back on that anomaly that screamed within the cleaning robot as she passed by the one approaching the boy as the struggling began once again.

However the boy was trapped and unable to escape, inevitably going to be pulled into the vacuum of darkness that was that cleaning robot that had its own purpose and own ends.

In a way….was that not the same as Misaka #8912 herself?

Any regrets were thrown to the wind though as she made her way through Academy City as the cleaning robot behind she managed to catch onto the boy's legs and suck them into its grip as the misfortune boy inside was pulled by two cleaning robots fighting for dominance.

* * *

Misaka #8912 ran through the streets of Academy City, the night time darkness washing over the alleyway in an almost poetic sense as the light from her military goggles provided the only illumination in the dark.

She was not running away but rather running _to _her target.

Unheard of before, Misaka #8912 had wasted time. She had a schedule to keep however no matter how fast she ran the truth was that she was at least 2 seconds behind schedule. The time that she had spent with the boy inside the cleaning robot had thrown her off schedule and as a result, she was made to rush towards the first area for the Experiment that was conducted outdoors.

The Experiment would commence the moment that she arrived; she had no misunderstandings about that point. Such was clear given the fact that this was her role to be completed in this city of Science, without complaint, lies or lack of clarity around it.

It was strictly defined and as a result, was the function of this Misaka to be fulfilled.

Yet as Misaka #8912 made that final journey through the alleyway that seemed to have her boxed in at all sides, the truth was that she seemed more alert that she recalled Misaka #8911 being in her final moments. While that Misaka had had a sense of understanding in her role, something that was matched by this Misaka, there was something else that Misaka #8912 seemed to realise.

The way the litter of the streets seemed to be collected in front of doorways suggested that those were places where people had businesses and livelihoods.

The way that overhead fire escapes were rusted suggested that their construction had not taken into account the rain that could possibly cause that rust to happen.

The way that the light from her military goggles shone with a green luminescence on the scenery in the dark gave the feeling as though this was nothing more than a truly enclosed space with no escape.

The chilly night wind pressed up against her as the Toy Soldier, made of laminated plastic and able to readjust for wind direction and the movement of the opponent was held tightly in her grasp.

The plastic seemed to be oddly strange to Misaka #8912 as well for some strange reason. The plastic material seemed to be lighter in her grip and Misaka #8912 could have likened her movements to being ones with having a 'spring in their step'. Was she excited or was there some sort of sense of elation within her as she made her way to the test site?

She rounded the last corner, the street lights that had given a minute amount of light disappearing completely as Misaka #8912 looked through her goggles to determine the location of her opponent.

She did not have to wait long as she saw him, leaning against the wall as he picked his teeth with his finger.

Accelerator stood without a care; he pushed himself from the wall as soon as he saw her in his sights, standing with his hands in his pockets with a completely neutral expression on his face. Whether or not he was feeling anything at the moment seemed to be irrelevant to the white haired boy as a whole but it was clear that he had something to say.

And he said it, the voice cutting through the silent air.

"You're late. And here I thought you guys were supposed to be punctual when it came to killing you."

"Misaka apologises for Misaka's tardiness puts Misaka simply. Experiment #8912 will commence immediately. Test Subject Accelerator….commence."

Misaka #8912 raised her Toy Soldier and it was then that all assumptions about a chance for a lack of conflict were thrown into the wind. There was nothing stopping her from taking action now that she had a defined purpose and goal in mind, ready to execute it immediately.

And she did so as she pulled the trigger of her weapon.

The barrel absorbed the sound and the recoil of the shots due to the rubber built into the weapon meaning that the sound that came out was hardly something that sounded like a gunshot, only one that sounded like a firecracker bought at a 100 Yen shop.

But even so, the results were surely deadly.

The bullets sailed through the air and collided with the opponent however Misaka #8912 did not stick in the same spot to determine if they had hit their target, instead moving to the side while simultaneously firing as she dove and hid herself behind a trash can.

Something whizzed past her as she turned her head back towards the opponent that she had been tasked to face as the first Misaka to engage in the outdoor battles. The moonlight shone done on the both of them meaning that there was no need for there to be any illumination from street lights to give presence to them both.

And as expected what Misaka #8912 saw was the unharmed Accelerator standing as he yawned without covering his mouth as Misaka #8912 once again unleashed a flurry of bullets towards Accelerator's location.

However it was not located towards the boy but rather to the air-conditioning unit that was located above his head. Accelerator seemed to notice the intentional miss and looked up, his gaze changing ever so slightly to acknowledge the fact that he was somewhat impressed at Misaka #8912's ability to react towards the environment that she was in so fast.

Misaka #8912 watched as she saw the air-conditioning unit fall to where Accelerator was, colliding with the boy's head….however bouncing off the moment that it touched, sailing back into the air where it slammed into the overhead fire escape.

Parts, bits and pieces flew in all directions as the air-conditioning unit burst upon the impact that it made with the fire escape. They rained back down onto the alleyway, striking the ground and even Accelerator, leaving nothing more than a mess that would have to be cleaned up after the battle was over.

However Misaka #8912 did not let that moment of destruction stop her as she fired once the pieces of the air-conditioning unit fell to the ground, shooting the air-conditioning unit on the other side of the fire escape.

Once again, the bullets collided and caused the heavy object to fall back towards the boy that was underneath it. Accelerator though did not budge as the air-conditioning unit collided with his body again and it was that moment that Misaka #8912 fired.

The concept was simple.

While espers had to perform calculations in regards to their abilities, it was usually in the face of one direct attack. However what if it was many?

While it seemed as though numbers were irrelevant when it came to espers, there were limits towards the calculation ability of an esper. While Accelerator had only been fighting indoors, there were limited cases where he had taken an attack from two directions at the same time.

He had to compensate for at least one of the attacks for sure but what about the second attack that was going to be fired his way?

What did that mean for his calculation? Would he be unable to complete the calculation for his esper power?

The answer was yet to be figured out as Misaka #8912 sent those bullets flying through the air towards her opponent as the air-conditioning unit and the bullets impacted at the same time.

And the moment that they did, Misaka #8912 was blown back, a hole ripping through her mind and body as she gagged in pain and fell backwards, feeling the warmth of her blood rolling through her clothes. The feel of the cold wind was more prevalent due to the wound she had sustained but that thought only gave her more reason to stand up despite the pain and flee from her target.

She sent a burst of bullets towards the boy as she rounded the corner, feeling those bullets whiz right back to her due to the boy's power most likely.

Her plan had failed.

For whatever reason, it was now clear that Accelerator had the capability to calculate and make way for numerous attacks in numerous directions, adjusting his calculations as necessary in order to allow for attacks that came from multiple directions.

Misaka #8912 filed away the information within her head and it flew through the Misaka Network as Misaka #8912 ran through the alleyway, hearing those nonchalant footsteps going through it as she sent another barrage of bullets towards the target.

The recoil, although small, rocked her body and she grunted in pain, lowering her body as a result of it.

That one movement though saved her life as the bullets whizzed back over her head as she turned and looked towards the boy that was once again standing unharmed at the centre of the alleyway where she had just run down.

"Hey, this is fucking shit. What the hell is this anyway? I thought that when we came outside, something would improve but it is just more of the same. No, even less than that. What the hell?"

Accelerator's question made Misaka #8912 frown as she stood, struggling to hold her balance however she managed to find a centre of gravity and maintain it as she looked towards the boy and responded with her own words.

"What do you mean? inquiries Misaka to your query."

"This. Why did you try the same trick twice? When the pieces of the first air-conditioning fell down, they hit me too but you didn't shoot me then like you did the second time. You didn't fire then so you tried again? What were you waiting for? Are you an idiot? Did they end up making the dolls dumber or something? If I have to go back to square one because of your lack of intelligence then I may as well kill you all in blocks." Accelerator spat out those mocking words.

"Misaka does not kn-"

Misaka #8912 stopped in her words for an instant before she came to realise something in the night.

And it was simply that.

It was _night_.

The darkness of the night seemed almost alluring. While the daylight seemed to draw people out into its warm embrace, the darkness of the night was not something that was so averse that one turned away from. No, instead it was something that seemed to gather the shadows together in a corner.

The darkness no longer pulled to regain control due to the sun's beams. Instead, it grew and covered an entire area. The luminescence of those sources of light that seemed to provide specks of light within certain gaps gave the sense that when one passed through one and back into the darkness, there was always hope by appearing once again in another source of light.

But the darkness itself that covered everything made a sense of homeliness towards the creatures that only showed themselves in its presence. Even when a flame was put out, there was always something that was present despite its lack of light.

Those things and realisations of the world around Misaka #8912 made her realise one thing.

She was distracted.

Distracted by the world that she had found herself in; the world that exceeded her expectations from the Testament information.

The world that she had been put into as a guinea pig to be killed at a designated time and place.

The world that seemed to only have in store for her nothing but death.

But it was also the world that was this beautiful as to allow for the creation of the light and dark that surrounded Misaka #8912 all around her.

She had been stimulated and thrown into this new world without warning and even though she was a mere tool, she still could not deny the entire beauty of the picture. Nothing seemed to fit together however there was harmony in all of the pieces. There were anomalies and individuals in opinions and thought even though they were trapped either inside cleaning robots or a terrible Experiment where they were destined to die.

Looking at that then, for someone that had only seen the inside through the Misaka Network…

How could one not be distracted from its entirety and beauty?

When faced with this world despite the pain, what else could Misaka #8912 do but be…

"Misaka…..is indeed distracted confirms Misaka." Misaka #8912 spoke her thoughts out loud as Accelerator clicked his tongue.

"Fuck this."

He flicked something in his hand.

But that was all it took.

The bullet that _Accelerator had caught _flew through the air and pierced through Misaka #8912's gut.

Misaka #8912 did not even cry out as she immediately felt all strength leave her body as she fell backwards, hitting the ground hard as she looked up towards the sky that was above her in the darkness.

The full moon shone done on her, ignorant of what was happening and the light of Endymion shot up into the sky, providing a tower leading up towards the heavens that seemed to be unattainable for people living on the level that they were now.

And even despite the pain that filled her, even despite the wavering vision and the dying of the light that came with it, Misaka #8912 truly believed one thing until the end.

That the world was beautiful.

That idea was maintained even after what had happened to her and that was enough to give her the sense of individualism that she had felt that she was never to have.

"Is…it always like this? asks Misaka." Misaka #8912's question and weak voice filled the night air as she felt the coolness grow beyond what was probably safe as she felt herself taking the final plunge into waters that no one could bring her out of.

"Like what?"

Accelerator's words were close as he stood over her, a realisation that was enough to send anyone flying to hills in fear however Misaka #8912, understanding her position in the Experiment and where she lay with respect to Accelerator, merely answered his question.

"This….radiant claims Misaka."

Those were the last words that Misaka #8912 ever said.

"Fuck if I know."

And those were the last words that she ever heard.

Accelerator tapped his foot on the ground and then it was all over.

* * *

Nunotaba Shinobu covered her mouth as she felt the bile trying its best to escape her mouth and leap onto the floor where it rightfully belonged.

The monitors in front of her which were overlooking the Experiment had provided sufficient data for the actions of Accelerator and Misaka #8912 was to be disposed of as usual. They were outsourcing the clean-up today to another part of the Dark Side (due to the lack of experience the Sisters had outside) however Nunotaba still felt as though the scene in front of her was something that would haunt her until the day she died.

She had come to a realisation thanks to the Sister that was splattered all over the screen in front of her.

And it was the realisation that the Sisters were not merely guinea pigs to be used and thrown away. They were truly human and had characteristics, likes, dislikes and a life to look forward to. However because of the scientists that lived in this detestable city that was something that they would never experience.

They were something to be disposed of for the interest of achieving the unattainable gem that was a Level 6.

They were nothing more than dolls, being able to be used for the sake of the goals of those scientists and Nunotaba was no better than them. After all, she had felt the exact same way however the Sister that was Misaka #8912 had shown her the error of her thinking simply by existing and stating the beauty of the world that would have never been accepted by someone in her position.

How could she say that the world was beautiful despite what was her inevitable fate?

How could one find beauty in the hell that was her created life?

Nunotaba Shinobu gritted her teeth and swallowed. This was something of her own making meaning that she had to face responsibility for her actions by facing them head on as she looked at the video feed that was being provided.

She held her mouth with both her hands as she turned her head and once again that bile that had seemed to retreat back appeared in her mouth and wanted to leap out once more.

The numerous remains of Misaka #8912 were no longer located in just one spot, arms and legs shot into the fire escape above where she was suspended. The amputated limbs made it seem as though Misaka #8912 had been pulled apart by the monster that was Accelerator before having those limbs tossed into the fire escape above as the blood slowly dripped onto the ground.

The video feed did not give a complete picture of the gruesome scene. The scattered remains of Misaka #8912 and those very limbs drooped over the edges of the fire escape in the darkness of the night.

Blood ran down the edges of the fire escape and onto the ground with the video feed not disclosing the location of vital pieces of Misaka #8912 such as her head, right leg and what remained of her torso.

Nunotaba turned away once again, only one thought in her panicked mind as she fought to calm herself.

She could not stand to see this or have this Experiment continue any longer for the sake of achieving the ridiculous objective that was Level 6. Although the video feed that was being provided by the camera was something that had been exclusively set up for the sake of the Experiment, these surveillance blind spots proved to be a massive hindrance towards the newly found goal of Nunotaba Shinobu.

She wanted to stop the Experiment, to prevent those girls from having their lives lost for a pointless cause.

But how could she save a life when so many had perished because of her?

What steps did she have to take to ensure that those girls had the chance to stand in the sunlight and experience that beauty as the humans that they were?

Nunotaba was a child prodigy…however even something as simple as this was lost on her.

Yet something on the video feed filled her vision as she frowned.

A single cleaning robot moved through the alleyway, moving straight as it cut through the darkness with what was probably a soft whirring. There was no audio feed, only a visual one but that was not preventing Nunotaba from having a grasp of the situation.

Yet still, despite the horrors that were located above the spot where the cleaning robot was moving through, Nunotaba felt at odds with the confusion that filled her. It was almost ironic that despite the screen right next to where the cleaning robot moved was the sight of a ripped off arm, she still focused entirely on the strange, new element that was in the alleyway.

Why was the cleaning robot there?

The location for the Experiment had been chosen due to the fact that there was a 98.64% chance of no interference however the remaining 1.36% had been dealt with using various techniques using the lighting and psychology among others. So why had a cleaning robot shown up in the first place where it was impossible that a foreign element would appear?

The answer came immediately after as a trash can flew through the air and slammed into the cleaning robot, causing the entire thing to slow down from the impact. Nunotaba had jumped in fright from the action and moved closer to the screen in the laboratory she was in to observe the occurrence more closely.

It was then that she saw it.

The boy with spiky hair tackled the cleaning robot to prevent it from moving any further as he reached down to the underside where it was sucking up the objects on the ground. Nunotaba truly felt her mind go blank as she watched the boy, with some difficulty, kick and hit the cleaning robot as he managed to grab something from the interior and pull it out.

It was…the leftovers of what seemed to be a half-eaten sandwich.

The boy seemed crestfallen however did not give up, plunging that hand into the bottom of the cleaning robot and managed to pull out a small leather object that he opened, the contents spilling out onto the ground.

From the contents, namely cash and a student ID card, what the object that had been sought after was clear.

It was a wallet.

The boy seemed to relax and bend down to pick up the fallen cash and ID card however stopped as he realised something that he had not before. It was something that would not have been noticed had he not been looking at the ground in the first place but now that he was, there was no way that he could not notice it.

It was blood.

The boy lifted up the money and ID card and looked almost stunned at the dripping liquid that made crimson fall to the ground as it was still slightly wet and had not dried. The boy was clearly at a loss towards what it was that had happened but it was Nunotaba that had felt her breath catch in her mouth.

Someone that had not been calculated to interfere in the Experiment had done so. They were there for what seemed to be a monetary purpose meaning that the scientists that were overlooking the Experiment were sure to be hindered in their Experiment given one thing.

If more and more people were drawn towards the places where the Experiment were to take place for a monetary purpose and monetary gain, wasn't that surely going to be a hindrance and prevent the Experiment from taking place? Wasn't it that time frame that meant that Nunotaba had the chance to stop the Experiment as a whole?

The plan that was slowly forming in her head was coming together in a strange way but she watched the boy that had given her the idea in the first place kneel down and wipe his finger against the ground.

He raised it, sniffed the liquid and seemed to shakily back away from the scene in front of him as the almost fresh blood probably gave off a metallic scent. His world was slowly crumbling and Nunotaba watched as a small, insignificant drop of blood rolled down from the dismembered left leg and fell towards the ground.

It hit the boy's outstretched arm and he froze, watching the blood roll down his arm and fall onto the ground.

The lack of movement though and the natural reaction to look up though merely made Nunotaba Shinobu tremble and she moved closer towards the monitor where the feed was coming from and the boy that was there.

"Notice…."

She did not know why she said those words and she realised how unfair they were towards the boy that had nothing to do with this.

However she wanted more than anything for those Experiments to stop and despite the unfairness she spat out those words to someone that could possibly do something. This was supposed to be Nunotaba's role but those words that came from her mouth only showed the scope of what she knew she was facing.

This was Academy City and this was the project to achieve Level 6.

What exactly could she do?

But the unfairness was merely her placing all of her hopes and dreams onto a stranger that had nothing to do with this. What was his Level? Was he a student; a part of the Curriculum? Why was he there in the first place?

Those questions had no answers for the child prodigy. Because of such it was unfair to rely on him for the solution to the Experiment that Nunotaba herself did not know how to stop completely.

But she didn't care.

Those girls were human! They deserved better than this world!

And here was someone on the edge of the threshold. Was he able to do something? Was he not? Nunotaba did not know but she felt her mouth move as she screamed towards the monitor.

"Notice….Notice and do something! Look up and feel fear! Despair! And do SOMETHING! Anything, dammit, just do something to end this!"

The boy seemed to tremble slightly, unable to work up the courage to look at what had caused so much blood on the floor as he clenched his right fist. Did that action have worth? Nunotaba did not know however she let out a single yell once more towards that boy on the monitor.

"NOTICE!"

The boy slowly angled his head upwards-

Just as his head lurched violently to the side. It was so sudden that it made Nunotaba leap in her seat as she saw the boy collapse to the ground, falling knees first and into the blood that was at his feet.

Nunotaba looked shocked at the sight and gaped as she saw men enter the screen as well, holding what seemed to be the same weapon that Misaka #8912 had used herself; the Toy Soldier. What they had done was obvious.

They had fired and shot the boy. The lack of blood splatter seemed to suggest that their ammunition was nonlethal but powerful enough to knock what looked to be a high school boy unconscious.

The men approached the boy, lifted him up and threw him to the side as they left the screen and came back with equipment that was necessary for the retrieval and clean-up of the body that had previously been Misaka #8912.

Nunotaba Shinobu fell backwards as she struggled to piece together the events that had happened.

The boy was conscious yes, however once again Nunotaba knew what the price was.

The unfair placing of the role that she had placed on the boy was irresponsible, she knew that. She could not count on anyone else to seek and give a solution to this problem before her meaning that the one with the sole burden of bringing an end to this Experiment was the child prodigy sitting on the ground right now.

And that person trembled with fear once more, looking up and forcing herself to watch as the outsourced clean-up team managed to find one of the missing pieces of Misaka #8912.

The head that came into view stared back at Nunotaba with those same expressionless eyes, now devoid of life as the child prodigy grit her teeth and swore something to her very soul.

(I'll swear that I'll save you.)

She made that promise to herself and to the Sisters and carved it into her very heart, looking back towards the boy that she had hoped would notice in the foolish thought that he might be able to do something.

But he could not.

The only one that could was the person swearing to themselves that they would do it.

Nunotaba Shinobu knew one thing; that she was likely the only one against the Experiment in such an open manner. But she didn't care that that was the case.

She had a duty to perform and people to save.

(I swear it).

And with that the resistance to the Level 6 Shift Project started.

* * *

**Fini.**

**Can you see why I thought it was hard to tell whether this story was dark or not? While it started off light, the fact of the matter was that Misaka #8912 had a 'schedule' to keep in that she was going to die. In this sense, even though she met someone who managed to get his head stuck inside a cleaning robot, despite the fact that she realised there was truth in his words that the Sisters could be individuals because of their different perceptions of experiences, she still was doomed to die.**

**While to some extent that showed how cruel the Level 6 Shift was, at the same time I wanted to show how Misaka #8912 who react to the world around her after being thrown into it for the first time.**

**If you noticed, I wanted to go into detail around the environment and things that she could experience meaning that I was strong of the details of such. Of course these details were from Misaka #8912's point of view and were important.**

**Given what her stance is in the manga I wanted to show that she really was distracted around the world that she was in, showing not only her humanity but also the fact that her emotions surrounding what she was facing despite her hell.**

**Naturally here, there were no heroes. Even though Touma (if you couldn't guess) got an appearance, in the face of something that he is not a part of yet, he can only fail as a hero in that regard. Also, as the sisters became the clean-up team upon receiving more knowledge of the outside world, they did not attack him like these guys did when he discovered the Experiment.**

**Shinobu though here was a tough character to write mainly because we haven't seen her in despair. As Misaka #8912 was the first clone to be used in the outside experiments and the one that showed her that the clones are human, what did she feel at her death? That was this was about (with the cash card plan referenced although slightly) and Misaka #8912's point of view.**

**Despite the darkness and Misaka #8912's inevitable death, I hope that this one shot gave you what might have been an insight of what the Experiment might have been like and the life that was the first Sister to exit outside the world they lived in and enter the world that they truly thought was beautiful.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**The next chapter will be more light hearted. I swear.**


	16. The Shenanigans of Three Heroes

**I've kept my promise and looking at what I have in my head as an idea, I think that this one is going to be lighthearted. If it's not I think that Touma x suffering has become the OTP for me. That or his misfortune.**

**I said I'd be back after exams but I did this without realising it. I'll go back to studying now. BUT JESUS! NT 14 has already begun translation! I'm looking forward to it finishing and to see what will surely be (another) awesome novel. Not only that but we have learned some more information on the nature of Kamachi and how he writes in an interview with Miki. Good god though...Kamachi is a bloody tank. but enough of this. THE NEXT TIME YOU SEE ME WILL BE AFTER EXAMS WITH THE FINAL OF ACUL0! I'M SERIOUS THIS TIME!**

**But whatever the case, let's get this train rolling! It's time for another request to be fulfilled so I hope that you look at what this is and hope that the idea that is going to be posed is one that you will enjoy as a whole.**

**This was requested by Guest777 (name specifics were lost in the Guest review) who asked:**

I'm hoping for something like Accelerator and Shiage hanging with the Delta force like something like seeing what it would be like if they went to Touma's school for at least a day; also a chapter with Touma's interacting with Kuroko Shirai or Mii Konori or a chapter involving their feelings with their interaction with Touma and finally a chapter or a series of chapters showing how all the girls react to Touma's statement in Shiage's chapter where he says "maybe I should look for a girlfriend" or something like that. Lol.

**It seems as though the ideas that were in this request sort of bounced around in my head trying to get things together. Looking at this idea and then at the entire review as a whole, I came up with this one that I hope that you like. In response to your review though, there will be no Delta Force but…..let's just see if I got close to what you were asking alright?**

**But apart from this, I'd like to start by thanking three people.**

**The first is naturally PokeRescue18, my beta reader. 4 years we've been doing this (well sort of) and I hope that he continues with me on this journey. So thanks man.**

**The second is, as always, you the reader. Not really 4 years for this project but if you know me, the amount of haphazard updates that I do mean that I keep you guys guessing when the next chapter is. I hope that you will stick with me despite this and really enjoy this one thing that I have typed up then.**

**And also, Guestt777. While there was no need to review and place you name forward with an idea, you did so anyway. I truly thank you and hope that I got the somewhat idea that you were looking for as a whole.**

**And now, from me I truly hope that you guys enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

A Painful Task With No Reward. _Balloon_FIGHT_.

"Just smile and wave guys. Smile and wave."

"They can't fucking see us in the first place."

"And can we wave when we're got our hands full!?"

The grounds of the show that was being held in District 3 was more of a massive event that brought the people from Academy City towards it in order to give an idea of the capabilities of their protectors that were Anti-Skill.

The Anti-Skill show's events were practically all sold out and for an outside observer the amount of people that were gathered here made it seem something along the lines of E3 or some other massive event that people outside Academy City would understand.

While in October the Interceptor Show had been held in this very exhibition space, the current show was more 'friendly' and open to the public, demonstrating the direction of Anti-Skill as an organisation in Academy City as well as other aspects that gave an idea of that direction. Naturally, the massive scope of the event meant that preparations and staffing were massive problems to be addressed.

The solutions though seemed to be having those members of Anti-Skill who were also teachers seek out and choose certain students in reward for credit points or perhaps even monetary benefit if they so choose to work for that in order to cover the necessary staffing issues.

While the bustle and hustle of the people around them who were interested in the show that was taking place in the exhibition hall seemed loud, three people stood amidst the crowd, standing near what was the Weapons Development area handing out balloons to the small children that passed.

There were very few people in the area due to the military fanatics having gotten the best view the day before and the fact that the children of Academy City seemed to be more focused on their own powers than Anti-Skill's weapons. As a result, while numerous people passed into and by the space that was Weapons Development, the target audience for the balloons was lost among the hustle around them.

That did not stop those workers though as one member of Anti-Skill, Pyonko and Gekota handed out balloons among that exhibition hall that was aimed at showing off the capabilities of Anti-Skill to the general public.

No, perhaps it was more accurate to use the names of those that were inside those suits.

Kamijou Touma, Accelerator and Hamazura Shiage all stood side by side as they waved to passing children and handed out the balloons that were in their grasp. While on a normal occasion that meant that their hands were free, this was not the case.

Kamijou Touma was holding a rifle with a bayonet in his other hand (he didn't know if it was real or not and had no desire to check), Accelerator had his hands full with the balloons and Hamazura Shiage was holding a sign that told the people passing by what the open exhibit behind them was for.

It was depressing to see the space in front of them basically empty (other more interesting exhibits of the Anti-Skill show aimed to students of Academy City were elsewhere in the District 3 hall obviously) however the occasional businessman and suited individual passed by, probably located from the outside as a corporate spy to look into the events.

They were always caught but it seemed as though the information that one wanted to get out of Academy City and into the outside world was high in demand.

That didn't mean much to the three boys that were, for lack of a better word, absolutely bored out of their minds.

"Why don't you shoot that thing into the air and get some attention towards us fucking hero?" Accelerator spat out towards the boy in the Anti-Skill uniform (which completely hid his face) from his Pyonko suit.

Their choice of uniforms was completely luck of the draw as they had all been drawn in by Yomikawa Aiho for the slave labour they were made to do without payment. Hamazura had been brought in upon not wanting to be subject to the blackmail that Yomikawa had threatened him, with Accelerator had been forced and Kamijou had been head locked by a big breasted classmate of his to 'contribute his sorry ass to society'.

As there was no payment and no incentive to work though, their luck of the draw had been the most interesting part of the day. The laughs that Kamijou and Hamazura had given Accelerator upon realising that he was going to be wearing pink had given the newest Anti-Skill rifle a test run as he had fired it towards the two boys.

This had meant that one section of the exhibit had to be closed off due to the destruction there and a strict talking to the #1 but in the end, they had been made to keep their positions and hand out balloons in the worst place to do so as punishment.

As they could not leave until all of the balloons were gone, they truly repented for their actions right about now as there was no one to hand them to.

"Are you kidding me? With my misfortune, it's probably hit some member of the Board of Directors or blows out a light, sending glass raining down and malfunction a Powered Suit which would chase after me as the machines rise. I'm not going to do it! I just know something will go wrong!" Kamijou cried out as he offered his balloons towards a child that was passing however the rifle in his other hand scared the child off as she ran into the crowd.

"I doubt it would be that bad boss. Besides, you guys might have had nothing to do but I wanted to spend the day with my Takitsubo-chan! Why is it wasted on this crap?!" Hamazura complained in his Gekota suit however chippered up as a child walked by.

"Shut up dumbass. I don't want to listen to your shitty sob story about your day."

The child jumped as Pyonko swore and immediately scurried away as Hamazura looked towards Accelerator with a look of disbelief (although it could not be seen.)

"What the hell man? Why did you do that? I was so close to shaving another balloon off my count!" said Hamazura with that same tone of disbelief as Accelerator turned away and looked in the other direction.

"Piss off. As the #1, I'm not having you manage to get rid of your balloons before me." replied Accelerator as he looked with scorn at the ones that were in his hands as Kamijou merely looked off into the distance through his helmet with a blank look in his eyes.

"Hah….spending a normal day with a girl. I wish I could meet someone nice."

"Hey, trash. I'll grab the rifle."

"Got it."

Accelerator and Hamazura moved instantly, Accelerator using his hands and grabbing the rifle, even though they were filled with balloons and twisted it upwards, slamming the butt into Kamijou's protected stomach.

Hamazura used the sign in his hands as Kamijou fell to the ground and slammed it into the boy's back as the two of them continued their assault of the boy on the ground that was barely moving due to the strikes that he was receiving.

"This. Is. What. You. Get. You. Bastard!"

"Even though I have a girlfriend, I still can't accept it when you say stuff like that boss!"

"Why?! What did I s-bfhfhf!? Gah! Gyah! Fbhbhb?!"

Gekota and Pyonko continued the assault of the Anti-Skill member on the ground as people that passed by truly watched in shock at what the two loveable characters were doing to the respectable member of Anti-Skill. They simply chose to ignore it and shuffle away though as both Accelerator and Hamazura panted while surrounding the fallen Kamijou.

"Why…..?" Kamijou muttered those words as both of the standing boys looked around and at the people that were moving away from them as they surrounded the deceased Kamijou.

"Damn it. Look what you did. How are we supposed to get rid of all these now?!" Accelerator spat out those words towards Kamijou as he watched the people leave the space where they were as Hamazura frowned.

"Now we're going to have to work twice as hard. Thanks a lot boss."

"Why is this my fault!? You guys were the one beating the crap out of me!" Kamijou yelled towards the two of them as he used the rifle as a crutch to stand while Accelerator merely leaned to the side as his lack of movement meant that he did not have to use his cane/crutch even though it was by his side in the Pyonko suit.

Kamijou struggled to stand but did so and watched the crowds that were moving away from them and sighed.

"Well it could be worse. I mean, at least District 3 is far removed from District 7. The chances of us getting to see someone we know are slim at best," he remarked. "Not to mention that this space isn't really all that popular."

"Tch. And here I thought that spending the day with you two retards was bad enough. I don't exactly want this getting any worse by having someone I know here." Accelerator was strangely honest as Hamazura merely nodded, the Gekota head moving rather slowly as a result.

"Yeah. I mean especially for you and me, the amount of misfortune that it would take for someone we know to rock up here and to this exact spot would be-"

"Let's go over there says Misaka as Misaka leaps through the air. Fly through the air and strike first paraphrases Misaka as Misaka recalls the lines of that video game general!"

"Why is Misaka even here?"

"Now, now. Aiho, where are we even going? It seems as though these two are getting rather excited over nothing."

"Calm down Kikyou. It seems as though you are the one that is getting overexcited about this more than those two. We're almost where we need to be."

Even though it was off in the distance, four voices filled the air and were oddly loud towards the trio that was standing in front of the Weapons Development area. There was no reason for them to listen so closely towards those words but they still managed to pick them up fairly easily.

And as they did so, Accelerator did one thing.

He looked towards the standing Anti-Skill member and Kamijou jumped at the pure hostility that was being directed towards him.

And Accelerator said one thing.

"I'm fucking killing you later."

"What did I do!? Wasn't it Hamazura that mentioned misfortune? And Hamazura, why are you cowering from the intense glare that Accelerator is sending me!? Don't leave me hanging here by myself!"

The cowardly thug that was Hamazura Shiage though did not respond to Kamijou's cry as Kamijou tried to drag him out of the Weapons Development area where he was hiding. He responded by trying to kick away however once again the scene of what seemed to be Gekota being arrested and resisting it only made people avoid the area with the two guys.

"No! I can guess where this is heading! After this, it's going to be my turn to face someone I know! Are you infectious boss?! I want out! I don't care if I'll be locked in the Reformatory for a whole week! Let me leave!"

Hamazura struggled as Kamijou tried to best to manipulate the rifle, balloons and the struggling Hamazura however it was Accelerator and his honour student mind that worked into overdrive at trying to figure out a way to avoid this situation entirely.

The people that knew him could not see his face but it was clear that the person that had brought him here in the first place, Yomikawa Aiho was heading towards them. Was she messing around with him or was this some tactic to get him to work harder?

Accelerator did not care in the slightest however hearing the voice of Last Order and Misaka Worst only made him wonder how badly things could go from here. Last Order was unpredictable in what her reaction would be if she found out who was underneath the Pyonko suit but Misaka Worst's reaction was more predictable.

And it was that that he wanted to avoid at all costs.

His mind came to a solution benefitting him as the #1 as he turned towards the two idiots that were trying to push each other away.

"Oi, you two retards." Accelerator spat out from within the Pyonko suit.

"I'm kinda busy right now!" Kamijou's quick response and choice to ignore Accelerator only made the boy twitch.

He just wasn't used to Kamijou yet despite everything they had been through. He had defeated Accelerator, seen what he could do and had truly fought to the death with him. But despite that he only addressed the boy as a friend and equal, something that truly made Accelerator's pace disrupt.

Was that a good thing?

Was Accelerator slowly regaining something that he had truly wanted in the first place if someone could place him in the role of a friend?

Accelerator shook his head. Thinking about this now was pointless so he merely made his order as clear as possible as an aura of intense hostility washed over him, seeing to make both Kamijou and Hamazura stop.

"You two. Shut the fuck up. Get over here. Hand out balloons. Don't speak."

"Can we run away now boss?" Hamazura whimpered with fear in his voice however it seemed as though Kamijou wanted to make sure that he did this job properly as he pulled Hamazura over towards where Accelerator was and they resumed what they had been doing for quite a while. Hamazura was trembling while he was doing it though.

Only seconds later, four forms came towards the Weapons Development area. The girl in the frilly dress had a look of pure wonder on her face as she caught sight of the trio that were handing out balloons.

"Look, look cries Misaka as Misaka rushes over. It's Gekota and Pyonko with some weird looking Anti-Skill member states Misaka as Misaka has no intention on focusing on the Anti-Skill member."

Kamijou froze in his movements as Last Order approached and looked towards Accelerator in his Pyonko suit as she held out a hand towards the pink frog as other figures approached in the distance. Misaka Worst, wearing an audio whose broken arm had healed, Yoshikawa Kikyou wearing her prominent lab coat and Yomikawa Aiho wearing an Anti-Skill uniform as a representative of Anti-Skill approached the three.

"May Misaka have a balloon? asks Misaka as Misaka attempts be polite."

Last Order said those words in an innocent fashion as Accelerator paused for a moment, lost in the smile of the girl that was in front of him. He knew his place immediately and responded as he felt he should, handing the girl a balloon with his right hand as Last Order took it with that same smile growing.

"Thank you states Misaka as Misaka rushes in for an embrace!"

Last Order wasted no time tackling Pyonko in the stomach as Accelerator grunted slightly, trying to grab Last Order and pull her away however the grip of the girl was too tight for him to get her off. Accelerator stopped trying at some point and merely let her hang there, silent and watching the small girl.

He was indifferent to the sensation of the girl against him however the warmth that came with her through the fabric of the suit was oddly pleasing and Accelerator truly felt as though the emotions that spread through him were enough to thaw the coldness around his heart.

He had seen it happen before after all.

"Oi, brat. Move it otherwise Misaka is going to use that Anti-Skill's bayonet to pop your balloon. You don't mind if Misaka borrows this right?" Misaka Worst approached Kamijou and grabbed the rifle, pulling it towards herself however Kamijou did not let go, instead bringing it closer towards himself as he shook his head.

Misaka Worst frowned and pulled it closer towards her however Kamijou responded by pulling it closer towards himself again as the frown on Misaka Worst's face deepened as she leaned in close towards Kamijou.

"Hey there now, Misaka is a good customer. So as a responsible salesman you're going to give this gun to Misaka aren't you?"

Misaka Worst moved the gun closer towards herself so that the barrel was between her breasts as she leaned in closer towards Kamijou, the frown turning into a malicious grin as Kamijou turned towards Accelerator for some help.

However he found that Yoshikawa was inspecting the fabric of the Gekota suit, with Hamazura still trembling and unable to meet the 'eyes' of Accelerator, while Yomikawa said nothing as she grinned and merely observed with folded arms. Accelerator though, who was being hugged by Last Order, who was now rubbing her face on the fabric slowly turned towards Kamijou and the boy paled within the Anti-Skill suit, still silent.

The Pyonko suit was _smiling _at him. It wasn't one with emotion and the beady eyes that were staring at Kamijou seemed to frighten him as he tried to think about what were the emotions of the eyes that lay beyond that. Kamijou had not understood why some people feared clowns but right now, he had a pretty good idea of why people in suits like Pyonko seemed to be scary.

He knew that the moment that he said something he was dead and every part of him told him that giving this gun to Misaka Worst was going to not end well at all.

So, the question was whether to give his reasoning and not give the gun to Misaka Worst (thus dying in the process) or to give Misaka Worst the gun (meaning that someone else was likely going to die in the process).

Why was it that things were always like this with him? This was handing out balloons damn it so why had this life and death choice appeared!?

(Such misfortune!)

Kamijou racked his brain so an answer as he tried to drag the gun back towards him and did the only thing that he could think of in the situation as he rose his finger and pointed in a certain direction.

Misaka Worst frowned and met the location where the finger was being pointed as the grin that was on her face seemed to widen and the malicious light in her eyes seemed to sparkle radiantly.

"Misaka likes your style."

Kamijou blinked and turned his head towards where he had pointed upon instinct rather than giving any thought towards it and paled instantly.

The Weapons Development exhibition had its arms wide open as Misaka Worst walked right in and hummed to herself dangerously as Kamijou felt as though he had to get out of here instantly before something bad happened. This was probably going to be par of the course knowing him.

Last Order looked up towards where Misaka Worst had gone and chased after her, letting go of Accelerator and heading into the Weapons Development exhibition as the boy watched her go as she shouted towards the clone. There were no words of warning as she simply let go and ran off, reflective of the relationship that Last Order felt she must have had with the stranger in the Pyonko suit. Accelerator said nothing, only having the thoughts inside his head as the warmth that she had given him seemed to still linger even though her presence was gone.

He understood something perfectly.

And that was he did not deserve what it was that Last Order have given him.

But at the same time, he still felt as though it was something that he could not live without.

The thought ticked him off however it only went to show how far he had come from his initial position when he had first met Kamijou.

"So, how are you guys doing?"

The voice of Anti-Skill member Yomikawa Aiho was directed towards them as Accelerator turned towards her, thus meaning that Hamazura had the chance to let out a sigh of relief as he had the opportunity to talk once again and avoid any punishment at the hands of Accelerator.

"Remind me why the fuck we're doing this again?" His terse voice cut through the air, directed as Yomikawa like a knife as Yoshikawa looked towards Pyonko with a surprised look on her face.

"Accel….erator?" she asked as he turned towards her while wearing that suit of his as he obviously shot a glare towards her.

"Say a word or even mention this to that shitty brat or Worst and you are _dead_. Understand?"

"Pfft!" Yoshikawa Kikyou, a researcher and someone that had been able to keep a straight face during the Level 6 Shift made a strange sound with her mouth as she turned away, covering it in amusement as her body trembled slightly with small movements.

"What was that!?" Accelerator spat out and took a step forward as he felt a hand on his arm holding him back, only to see that Kamijou had grabbed it to prevent him from moving forward and losing his temper.

"Hey there. This is a public place. Although I don't like it when you do it me, I don't really think I could stand it if you started hitting another person in public." Kamijou made his point quickly and carefully as Hamazura watched the two of them in curiosity.

Accelerator clicked his tongue and pulled his arm away as Hamazura turned from the exchange and looked towards Yomikawa in his Gekota suit.

"But the #1 has a point. Why are we doing this again?" While he recognised the woman in the lab coat from the chaos that was the Ichihanaransai, it was the woman Anti-Skill member that he focused his attention on fully as Yomikawa merely grinned.

"Well, I thought that it would be interesting to have you three here. Although you many sold any balloons and destroyed the other exhibit, are you at least managing to keep a calm mind? From what I've seen from you guys, although I can't say much for you as you're Komoe-sensei's student," Yomikawa said as she turned towards Kamijou. "You need a break. So here it is. What do you think?"

Hamazura turned towards the others that were with him as he considered the words of the woman.

While he did not know the case for the two here in front of him, a lot had happened over the last few months, at least beginning in October for Hamazura. World War 3 and the group that was GREMLIN had come and gone so it seemed as though Kamijou Touma was the one that had the most going on around him. Accelerator Hamazura did not know about but if anyone of them needed a break it was Kamijou.

And here they were, hanging out as friends (?) somewhat so was the relaxation that they had here worth it? Or was it something that they could look back on in a day's time and think that the experiences that they had today would only be respected once the time had passed?

As someone that had only seen a small part of the world that was Magic and the horrors of the world that was Science, Hamazura truly reflected on the point that Yomikawa was making. The question was simple.

Did he deserve this relaxation with others that he knew and trusted?

After everything he had been through, it seemed as though the question should have dug into his soil but Hamazura Shiage did not have to think about it for long as he reached his answer, as did the other two there.

"I hate this."

"Fuck off."

"I don't get worker's compensation so I'll pass of this form of 'relaxation'."

He, Accelerator and Kamijou Touma all made those remarks as Yomikawa stared at them before grinning and laughing, holding her chest as she did so, leaving the three boys and Yoshikawa looking at each other with wonder.

"Well, I did expect that to be the case. I'm sure you'll think that today won't be so bad. Come on then Kikyou, we can make fun of the #1 at home so let's leave them be for now." said Yomikawa with a chuckle as Accelerator soured even more in his mood.

"I swear to God that I'm going to pummel you when we get home." he spat out.

"Yes, yes. I'm sure that's the case. We should go and get Last Order and Worst though. I heard that there was some experimental models of equipment in the Weapons Development area that are allowed to be tested so we should go get them before they find one." Yomikawa started toward the Weapons Development area as Yoshikawa looked towards Pyonko with a mischievous light in her eyes as she followed.

The trio of heroes watched them go however it seemed as though they did not have to wait long for something to happen as Last Order rushed out of the Weapons Development exhibit and tackled Yoshikawa in the stomach before running to hide behind her as she trembled while looking at the entrance to the exhibit.

"W-We have to flee immediately remarks Misaka as Misaka trembles in fear! The outlet of negative feelings for the Misaka Network has turned into a tyrant with an iron rule complains Misaka as Misaka truly values democracy!" Last Order trembled in fear as she hid behind the woman as Yoshikawa looked up.

"What exactly are you t-"

She never got another word out as she saw Misaka Worst grinning and holding what looked to be a futuristic Taser in her hand.

"Let's see exactly how powerful your Electromaster ability is compared to Misaka Last Order! Bwahahaha!" Worst cried out and pressed the button on the Taser as the weapon shot out two small alligator clips through the air that sailed towards the girl who was behind Yoshikawa.

Yoshikawa who was in the way dived towards the ground with Last Order as they continued their arc, flying over the top of her at incredible speed towards the only other person that was in the way.

Hamazura Shiage went wide eyed as he leaned back upon instinct as the alligator clips soared past him, slicing a hole in the material of the Gekota suit and passing towards the person that was now in its path.

Accelerator wasted no time. He moved his hand like lightning towards his collar, activating his electrode that allowed him the calculation abilities to control vectors at his will. The alligator clips hit their mark, carving and slicing through the material like it was paper and connected with his pale skin.

They instantly bounced off, with twice the speed that they had originally as they were subject to Accelerator's ability as they headed towards their true target now.

"Huh, what's thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!?"

Kamijou Touma let out a yell as the alligator clips passed through the bullet proof armour that he was supposed to be wearing and connected with his skin, sending the volts from the weapon passing through it instantly as he fell and twitched on the ground.

Misaka Worst looked on in surprise, noting the length of the cord that had shot out of the Taser in the first place and grinned, holding the knob that was on the weapon. She twisted it to the left, the knob marked 'Voltage' increasing to a higher number as she watched in amusement.

"WhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Kamijou started to roll around on the ground as Misaka Worst started to laugh in sadistic glee however stopped as Yomikawa chopped her on the head with the side of her palm and removed the Taser from her grip rather calmly and moved the 'Voltage' knob to zero. Kamijou stopped his yells however the intermittent twitching that he did every now and then seemed to suggest that the experience had shaken him up somewhat.

"H-Hey are you alright?!" It seemed as though Yoshikawa, upon inspecting Last Order to make sure that she was all good as well headed over towards Kamijou as he lay on the ground moaning somewhat.

Yomikawa joined her, grabbing Misaka Worst by the collar of her aodai as the group gathered around the fallen boy as Hamazura let out a weak voice.

"Is he…dead?"

"Hardly. He was hit with this new experimental Taser though. From what I've heard it aims towards making clothes redundant as it slices through the fabric. I didn't think that it would so effective against bullet proof armour though. There are some side effects though that I seem to recall…" Yomikawa made her comments as she watched with concern though as Kamijou slowly rose his head and Yoshikawa looked towards the Taser while holding out her hands towards the boy.

It seemed as though that action in itself was something that showed that her want to become a kind teacher, ready to accept any student, was still prevalent as she turned towards Yomikawa while frowning. Kamijou took her hands as Misaka Worst struggled and Last Order looked in fear towards the Taser itself.

"Side effects? Like what?" Yoshikawa asked in worry.

"I can't remember," replied Yomikawa sheepishly as she tried her best to do so given that the boy on the ground would be worrying about it. "I seem to remember something vague about muscle spasms though."

"Muscle…spasms?" Kamijou asked in a slowly rising voice as he got his bearings back after the shock (which was astonishing in itself).

What happened next though, no one could have predicted.

Suddenly, Kamijou's right hand (which had been holding the now dropped rifle) shot upwards diagonally and to the left, striking Yoshikawa in the face with an open palm. Needless to say she was shocked however the right hand fell after its attack, landing on her right breast almost perfectly. It sat there for a moment as Yoshikawa looked towards it and then towards the boy that had done the action.

"Y-Yeah, muscle spasms like that. I also remember that associated with that is a numb feeling in the muscles that spasm though. Can you feel that right arm or hand now boy?" asked Yomikawa as Kamijou shook his head frantically as he met with Yoshikawa's eyes that seemed to be devoid of emotion.

"I see." came her reply.

Her own hands went towards the one that was located on her breast (Hamazura looking on with a frown of jealously as Accelerator turned away merely because he wanted nothing to do with this) as she patted the hand in question. She lifted it and held it in front of her face, poking the fingers that were there without any response from the numb hand as she maintained her smile.

"Well, to prevent this from happening again we should amputate that limb right?"

"Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

"Misaka likes where this is heading." said Misaka Worst in amusement as Last Order merely gaped as she looked on from behind Yomikawa.

"Ah, and Yoshikawa is heading to grab the bayonet commentates Misaka as Misaka watches the tension that is unfolding. What is going to happen next? asks Misaka as Misaka sets up the scene for a page break."

The resulting actions of Yoshikawa Kikyou though seemed to suggest that perhaps the path of a teacher was not the best for her after all.

* * *

"It could have been worse." Hamazura made that comment as he stood on the same place however it seemed as though Accelerator was overall just pissed from what had happened and Kamijou was merely satisfied that he had managed to survive.

Numerous cuts were located along his Anti-Skill uniform however it seemed as though he was truly lamenting the fact that his right hand had touched a breast (without his consent though) however it had been numb at the time so he had gotten nothing out of it.

"Why of all times did it have to happen in the first place? Such misfortune." He said in depression as Accelerator turned towards him.

"Shut the hell up. What, you think that what you did was alright? Goddamn it, you have some fucked up standards." He spat out in contempt.

"It wasn't my fault! Besides even though they left, I still have chills from what that researcher gave me. Are all adults that scary!?" Kamijou cried out in unfairness as the image he had of a mature woman was crushed by the tsukkomi he had received.

"Espers aren't that different." Hamazura remarked offhand as he recalled his own experiences and that in itself seemed to make Kamijou quiet as he recalled that very same fact. It seemed as though that idea in itself was enough to make the three pause and fall silent while handing out balloons.

The relaxation time that had been given to them seemed to be wasted though entirely because of the fact that while they were doing their hardest; many of the balloons that they had blown had either blown up eventually or lifted towards the roof the exhibition hall.

It made the entire endeavour seem pointless and that in fact only made it seem the more unfair to the trio that wanted nothing to do with it.

"W-Well we may as well try and figure out the best from what we have right?" asked Kamijou. "I mean Accelerator met his loli so there has to be something good in this."

"I'm sorry, I met my _what_?" Accelerator spat out towards the boy as Kamijou turned towards him, that smiling Pyonko face that was staring back at him once again scaring the crap out of the Imagine Breaker boy.

"Pardon?"

"What did you say?" spat out Accelerator.

"I think he said loli." remarked Hamazura offhand without really caring but paled as he realised what he had just said as well as the smiling Pyonko face turned back towards him. Sweat poured over the Level 0, adding towards the heat inside the suit that had not seemed that uncomfortable until right that instant as more was added.

"What the fuck did you just say? Did you fucking say loli? Huh?!" Accelerator turned towards Kamijou who merely shook his head.

"No, I didn't say loli. Did you Hamazura?" asked Kamijou with a completely neutral tone however the slight trembling of the rifle in his other hand made it clear that he too had realised his mistake.

"N-No, not at all boss. You must be hearing things man." replied Hamazura with a nervous laugh as Accelerator approached Kamijou and shoved a balloon in his face.

"Don't give me that fucking hero. Say that again word for word and we'll see who exactly would win out of the two of us now. You hear me?" spat out Accelerator from point blank range.

Kamijou as well felt a nervous sweat come over him as he saw the scary Pyonko giving him a mouthful as the boy in the Anti-Skill uniform responded by opening his mouth.

However it seemed as though his body had other plans.

Once again, without warning, his right hand (holding the balloons) jerked upwards and diagonally to the left, backhanding Accelerator to the face before falling down, past Accelerator's chest where it hung by Kamijou's side, limp and lifeless due to there being nothing to rest on in the fall.

There was silence between the three of them as all of them were unsure about how to react however it was Kamijou that spoke first amid the silence that had come over the three heroes.

"Hehehe…muscle spasms?"

"Kukakekokakikekukikakokukukekakikekokake-!"

"Wait you idiot, you can't use your plasma strike in here! Are you trying to kill us all!? Stop! Stop! It was the muscle spasms!"

Kamijou cried out in surprise and shock as Accelerator rose his hands above his head as he did some sort of attack within the District 3 exhibition hall as Hamazura merely watched the two of them with interest as the wind started to kick up. Was this what the #1 had been resorted to? Although he complained, there was a tone of voice that seemed to have light in it despite the both of them having been a part of the Dark Side of Academy City.

They had both pulled themselves out of it, with sacrifices of course, and not everyone had survived however they were right here, right now, living the moment and truly making sure that their lives were worth living.

Hamazura had attained that and from what he had seen from the people that had come before, it seemed as though Accelerator had to.

The gap between him and the #1 seemed to shorten a bit in that one moment due to that realisation. Even though they had their differences in a way they were the same in what they did and had achieved.

Their peace was a testament to that.

And if one thing was sure, Hamazura knew that Accelerator was probably the same as him in one regard.

Hamazura would not give that up for the world.

"Hamazura?"

A voice, quiet and soft came from the side and Hamazura Shiage stiffened up immediately. He knew that voice. There was no way that he could not recognise it in the first place however given the context (namely him in a Gekota suit that stunk from his body odour and being next to the #1 and another idiot who seemed to be trying to take control of the other as balloons flew into the air as they struggled) it was hardly something that he wanted to be seen in.

Hamazura though did not turn around instantly, instead racing towards the two brawling boys and slamming his sign into the side of their bodies. There was an impact and the grunt of the #1 as he looked up with a hateful glare that was not seen however Hamazura bent down and shoved a finger into his face.

And he spoke.

"Get over here. Hand out balloons. Don't speak."

Accelerator deadpanned and looked behind Hamazura before choosing to comply with a click of the tongue with who he was looking at, standing up and leaving Kamijou on the ground wondering what had ticked Accelerator off for him to use his plasma attack. It was unlike the boy however Kamijou merely passed it off as stress. It wasn't his fault he had muscle spasms!

He stood up, once again using the rifle to do so and looking at the balloons that were floating up towards the roof. He would have to blow more up to compensate meaning that he was sure to feel the pain in regards to that later.

As a result, the only thing that he had to lift was the Anti-Skill rifle that he held while Accelerator stood silently in his Pyonko suit as Hamazura turned and faced the person that had addressed him, catching the attention of both Kamijou and Accelerator.

"Takitsubo-chan!"

Takitsubo Rikou stood in her trade mark tracksuit as she approached Hamazura in the Gekota suit while tilting her head and watching the trio, focusing her gaze on the balloons that were in the boy's hands.

"We were wondering what you were doing so I followed your signal. I didn't think that you would be here with…him."

Takitsubo said those words plainly however it was clear that she was being rather protective of her boyfriend in how she moved a bit closer towards Hamazura and grabbed his arm while he stood handing out balloons. She was addressing Pyonko or rather the boy within it while Accelerator merely turned his gaze away to look and wave half-heartedly at the passing crowd.

Her AIM Stalker ability definitely had its uses when it came towards her memorising a target's AIM field and using it to track them down, something that had been done here with her finding Hamazura so quickly. It also allowed her to identify Accelerator but it seemed as though she was more interested in the Anti-Skill member that was standing next to the #1 as she seemed to frown at the reading (or lack of such) that she was getting from him.

Hamazura though brought up a point that he seemed to not have answered by Takitsubo immediately.

"Hang on there Takitsubo, you said 'we'?"

"Hamazuraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" A child like voice filled the air as Hamazura felt something tackle him in the gut as he grunted and looked down, seeing the small girl that was Fremea Seivelun wrapping her arms around him. Her beret was lopsided but she didn't to care as she grinned up at the Level 0.

"Nyah, nyah Hamazura! Essentially I want a balloon! It has to be red because I said so nyah!"

Fremea said those words with joy as Hamazura smiled within the suit, more voices coming towards the trio. Hamazura looked up and seemed to maintain that smile even though the people that he was looking at usually spelt trouble.

"Bwahaha! What are you super wearing Hamazura? You super look ridiculous!"

"It reflects your idiocy quite well there Hamazura. Are you planning on going home in that?"

Kinuhata Saiai and Mugino Shizuri walked up to the trio without a care as they looked as though they belonged here even though this was strictly an Anti-Skill demonstration area but it seemed as though they were only here to see the Level 0.

"What are you guys doing here?" Hamazura asked.

"We're here to see what you're doing. Takitsubo went off on her own so we followed but hiding from her seems to be impossible if you radiate an AIM field. Wouldn't you say so….#1?" Mugino turned her head and looked towards Accelerator in his Pyonko suit, grinning as if she clearly wanted to say something but only had to imply it to piss him off even more.

It seemed though that she got it in one as Accelerator rose a covered hand.

"Hey, #4. You know what finger I've giving you now? You get five guesses and the last 4 don't count." He spat out with acid as Hamazura tried to calm the tension by handing Fremea a red balloon that she brought down and smacked with her hand as it bounced around.

"H-Hey you guys. Can we not do this now? I mean this is a demonstration hall after all. You can't have espers tackling it out seriously right? Especially not between Level 5s!" Hamazura slightly trembled at the thought of that and it was Mugino that seemed to acknowledge the remark.

She responded though not with words but rather with actions as she brought out her phone and took a picture of the Pyonko with a knowing grin on her face.

"I'll be keeping this. And every time you see me, you'll know exactly what it is that I'll be thinking."

Accelerator clicked his tongue and suppressed every human urge within him to murder the #4 then and there, turning his head away once more and looking in the distance as Kinuhata took up the slack, looking at Hamazura and what he was wearing.

"But seriously Hamazura, you look super ridiculous. What possessed you to wear this super thing anyway? I mean at least the super guy over there has some class with the Anti-Skill uniform!"

Kinuhata made that hurtful comment towards Hamazura as he looked towards his fellow member of ITEM.

"Hey, you think I wanted to wear this?! Even I know how stupid I look in this thing so give me a break!" cried Hamazura as Kinuhata covered her mouth and tried not to laugh, something that was not unnoticed by Takitsubo as she pulled the boy closer towards her.

"I think it's fine Hamazura. I think you look fine in anything."

"Takitsubo…."

Yes.

This was the very peace he had worked so hard to achieve.

As a Level 0, he might not have had much. Indeed, as a Level 0, not having 'much' was almost a requirement. But through his own hard work and pain, he had managed to bring about this result.

Comrades that he loved, one more so than others, and a life to live and look forward despite the hurt that was given. It was something that he had grasped with all his might and that in itself made it all the more powerful; he knew what would happen if he were to lose it.

He didn't want to lose this place for the world and he knew that the others probably felt the same. Which only meant that because of such an important thought, he was going to make sure that he maintained this place.

Because he had saved these people.

And they had him as well.

Which only made it all the more beautiful.

"Thanks Takitsubo. I really needed that." Hamazura said those words from the bottom of his heart as he brought his girlfriend closer towards him, feeling the heat from her skin pass through him inside the Gekota suit although not adding towards any uncomfortable feeling that he had inside the suit.

"Hey, no fair! I want to get close to Hamazura as well!" cried Fremea as Hamazura let out a chuckle as he turned towards the people that were merely observers. Accelerator did not seem to care in the slightest as he turned and looked away while Kamijou felt Hamazura looking at him as he stopped what he was doing (looking for people to hand out balloons) and nodded towards the boy.

That was all that he needed.

They had their own places and lives filled with hopes and dreams.

They might joke around right now but in truth, the fact that that was acknowledged was something that had to be respected.

And doing so was surely a step forward for all of them.

"Tch. And now we've got those two doing what they always do. Damn, it's disgusting."

"Looking at the normalfags makes me super want to throw up. Let's have some fun anyway since we're here Mugino. Say, that looks like a super nice gun there Anti-Skill-san."

Mugino and Kinuhata turned away from the sight of Hamazura as both Fremea and Takitsubo clung onto him as they passed by the #1, who Mugino gave a knowing smile to, as they passed him and approached Kamijou.

"Isn't that one of the newer models?" Mugino asked her question as she leaned down and looked at it. "Does it work on idiots like this #1 here?" She turned and looked towards Accelerator with mischief in her eyes as Pyonko turned towards her and rose that gloved hand again. It was clear what finger was giving her but neither seemed to care.

"Piss off #4. And you and that shitty midget can go and fuck yourselves for all I care. Get out of my sight and do something productive with your time there."

All heads turned towards Accelerator and the mouthful that he had just given Kinuhata and Mugino in the presence of Fremea who had her mouth open in shock. Hamazura went pale and Takitsubo seemed to have no expression change. Kamijou merely blanched within his Anti-Skill suit as the balloons that they were supposed to be handing out served as a complete contrast to what was said.

"Give me that gun."

And of course, the choice between life and death for the people involved rested on the hands of the Level 0 spiky haired boy.

Mugino Shizuri grabbed the rifle with her hand however Kamijou did not let go, instead choosing to press it closer towards him as Mugino looked towards him with a hateful glare.

"Listen to me you little shit. You are going to give me this gun. Understand?" Her words were icy and clearly full of malice, something that made Kamijou tremble in his bones. He shook his head though as Mugino leaned in close and gripped tighter onto the gun.

"I wasn't asking you. Kinuhata. Help me out."

"You super got it. I'm not going to let that pass even if you are the #1." Kinuhata's words were also icy as she grabbed the gun that Mugino was also trying to get off Kamijou as the two girls tried to wrestle it out of his grip.

"H-Hang on a minute guys. Why can't we all be friends?" Kamijou offered a suggestion that was shot down by the looks at Mugino and Kinuhata gave him, as well as the one that was subtly given by Accelerator.

"Super. Give. Me. The. Gun."

"G-Guys? We should at least try and talk this out…" Hamazura tried to fulfil his role as the mediator in ITEM's disputes however it seemed as though the small girl Fremea that was clinging to him was more focused on happily shouting out others things right now than anything else.

"Hahahaha nyah! There were some naughty words there! Some naughty words!"

"We should all just calm down…"

The words of Takitsubo though were lost in the chaos of the girls trying to relinquish control of the gun from Kamijou as he tried to bring it closer towards himself in fear of what would happen.

"Did you hear me?" Mugino turned towards her target as Kinuhata started to jab her foot into Kamijou's as he merely responded.

"I really, really think that we can avoid a conflict here! B-Besides, you're too close, too close! I just know that something bad is going to happen so could you please let go of the rifle and-"

It happened suddenly.

Kamijou's right hand shot up diagonally to the left, striking Mugino Shizuri, the #4 Level 5 and the Meltdowner of Academy City in the face. It continued in its path, losing all momentum and feeling as it dropped towards the ground. It dropped and fell, placing itself rather comfortably onto the Meltdowner's right breast, not moving from the place that it seemed to sit without a care.

Everybody froze at the action, Kamijou looking at the place where his right hand was with tears in his eyes as he truly wondered what it was that was going to happen next. Mugino had no change in expression, unable to determine whether she was going to explode with anger or destroy the person in front of her first.

Hamazura perhaps was the one that went the whitest in his Gekota suit as even Fremea seemed to understand what had happened was something outrageous.

Both Takitsubo and Kinuhata went agape at the pure courage that the boy that had committed the action must have had to do that. While they did not know him or see his face, it was questionable whether or not the thing that they felt respect for him for was worthy to be able to be respectful in the first place.

It was Accelerator that broke the silence however with the one thing that no one needed to hear.

"I'm smiling right now #4. And every time you see me, you'll know exactly what it is that I'll be thinking."

Mugino slowly turned her head towards Accelerator as Kamijou seemed to sigh in that he had escaped punishment however the hand that seemingly came out of nowhere and grabbed his helmet made his reassess that shine of good luck.

"Let's have a nice talk."

Mugino dragged the boy off in the distance as Kamijou dropped the rifle while he struggled fruitlessly as the group watched him go as Mugino dragged him, silently wondering how in the world things had turned so crazy for that Level 0.

"Would you believe it was muscle spasmsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss?!"

His scream shot through the air however that in turn gave another member of the group there the perfect chance to do something that they had wanted to from the start.

Kinuhata Saiai kicked up the rifle and pointed it towards Pyonko with a malicious light in her eyes.

"Let's super get this show on the road." She spat out.

"Fucking bite me." Came the cold reply.

The clash between that Level 4 and the #1 began immediately as Hamazura was left with one thought in his mind as he watched the chaos that was beginning to unfold.

Espers truly were cruel sometimes.

* * *

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…."

"Shut the hell up. You got what was coming towards you."

"You know exactly what it was! That wasn't me! And Hamazura, why didn't you stop that smaller girl from getting the rifle!?"

"Eeeeeeeeeh?! You wanted me to put my life on the line for something like that!?"

The trio of heroes once again stood with balloons in their hands but it was clear that they no longer cared about getting rid of them properly as was evident in the number of balloons that were above their heads and under the roof of the exhibition centre.

Hamazura in his Gekota suit was perhaps the only one unharmed but it was clear that Accelerator had some scratches on his uniform caused by the bayonet on the rifle rather than the rifle's bullets. His Pyonko suit was damaged in places but there was hardly a mark on the pale boy meaning that they felt rather satisfied with getting away with only those marks.

Kamijou though had barely survived and it was impressive that he had.

His Anti-Skill uniform was cut in a number of places, the helmet's visor being crushed but somehow the glass in it managed to stay in place. Open wounds and a light smoking came from all over him and it was clear that he was going to feel that in the morning. His face still was not visible but if it was, the other two heroes were sure that a flood of tears would probably come out.

"Look at me! I blame you two idiots! And although your friends left to avoid getting questioned, why did we have to stay Hamazura? You guys and your damn lolis!" Kamijou shouted towards Gekota with an aggravated voice while Hamazura frowned.

"Hey! I was someone that had to be questioned too you know! And besides, as a Level 0 and my criminal record as it is I…Wait a minute. Did you just say lolis?" Hamazura turned and looked Kamijou in the face as he seemed to stiffen.

"N-No…I said….follies? Yeah , follies! Why do your follies have to lead to tsukkomi pains on my part? As the straight man, those kinds of skits leave me wondering why in the world I haven't already lost my mind!" Kamijou patted himself internally on the back for the save however it was Accelerator that turned towards him with that creepy smiling Pyonko face.

Kamijou was going to have nightmares tonight.

"You want to repeat what you actually said there? I've still got enough battery left to deal with you if you think that you can get away with saying shit about lolis and me. I don't give a crap about this piece of trash but try it again and you'll be taking a long walk off a fucking short plank. Got it?" Accelerator spat out in scorn as Kamijou seemed to back away slightly as Hamazura turned towards Kamijou as well.

The smiling Gekota face that clearly had hostility in its gaze only made Kamijou jump as he shivered slightly as Hamazura spoke his words, standing next to Accelerator.

"I don't care much for that comment…but do you want to address any points that you have with lolis boss? I'm sure will we'll be happy to listen to them." Hamazura gripped the sign in his hand a bit more tightly as Kamijou wondered what had happened to the save just earlier. Why was his witty remark thrown into the wind like that? Where were the points?!

He had to think of something to calm these two down mainly because the day was almost over and he just wanted to get home alive and relatively in one piece.

"Ah, well…" Kamijou stuttered as he tried to think of something to say that was rational however nothing came to mind. Why was he so underprepared for these two? He racked his head however anything that could be said that could calm the #1 and Hamazura was lost on him.

So instead, he merely chose to do what was natural.

Lolis? Something to say?

He had had this conversation with Aogami Pierce and Tsuchimikado Motoharu many times before.

"W-Well, I'm just saying that while the loli genre seems to encompass a wide variety of spectrums, the amount of groundwork that goes into such characters is hardly different. E-Even if you place a maid outfit or bunny outfit, the specs don't change. It's merely a rose by another name if you know what I mean. So basically, all lolis are the same even though their character tries to flesh out and be individual. The attempts to do so are extremely refreshing though and seem to add flavour towards what might have been a singular attempt to create a character trope that can be placed across many different genres despite the groundwork being the same."

Kamijou spoke and left both Accelerator and Hamazura wondered what the hell he had just said as they looked towards each other with blank stares.

"Could you repeat that boss?"

"The fuck did you say? The only thing I got was that all lolis were the same. What kind of logic is that? One does not simply state that lolis are the same. What kind of individualism point where you trying to spread towards the fucking Sisters then huh? Fucking hero!?"

Both Hamazura and Accelerator responded differently but Kamijou merely replied to them both by shaking his head. He sighed as if he was talking to a child (or loli, whichever preferred) but merely continued to speak.

"The individualism is the point though! Think about it! Why are lolis respected as a character in the first place? It's because of their specs despite the groundwork! They don't hold a thing towards onee-sans though! Onee-saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaans!"

Kamijou revealed his hidden passion with a roar to the air, leaving Accelerator and Hamazura looking at him as if he had lost his point, something that Hamazura chose to point out.

"Wait a minute there. What are you saying? Are you trying to tell me that the older they get the groundwork for a loli drops!? That's ridiculous! You were once a loli there boss but then you aged you know!"

Hamazura dropped a valid point however it was Kamijou that stepped back, holding the rifle towards Hamazura ever so closely towards the boy in response to what he said.

"Sorry Hamazura….I don't swing that way. I'm not going to be a part of that illusion where I'm a loli all grown up."

"Were you even listening?! B-Besides I have a girlfriend! What kind of misunderstanding is this?!" Hamazura shouted out as Accelerator clicked his tongue in response.

"That's fucking disgusting. Things shouldn't change in the first place for all I care. They should stay as they are."

It might have been because he was comfortable in the position that he held now in his life that Accelerator felt that. There was certainly nothing wrong with it in the first place, only going to show how much he valued what he had regained with his own hands.

But it seemed as though the noble point that he was making was lost on the spiky haired idiot.

"Of course. I mean technically, Misaka Worst should be a loli, being biologically less than 2 years old, but physically she's around 14 or so. It must be hard for you, seeing a loli all grown up."

"Are you fucking with me!? Besides, it's just a natural fucking progression from the state if they age. What the hell am I supposed to do about it?"

"Which only implies that you're rather upset as you can't do anything about it. Honestly you guys, do you really like that lolis will be lolis forever? You need to destroy that illusion. You need to get past your fetishes."

Kamijou nodded and crossed his arms however both of the boys merely looked at it with that same contempt.

"So that's what you were getting tooooooooooooooooooooooooo!? I have a girlfriend damn iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!"

"So that's what you were getting at huh!? You think this is a fucking joke because you're the only one that hasn't had someone you know come up to us!? I'm going to shove that bayonet where the sun doesn't shine you motherfucker."

Kamijou moved his hand to protect his butt as he slowly backed away from the two of them.

"W-Wait hang on there you guys. I thought we were being civil! I'm making a valid point so you could at least retort by saying that loli nurses are the best combination because they lack the abilities to be proper nurses! And besides, if you say that I haven't met anyone that I know, I just have a feeling that-!"

"Look! It's Gekotaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

"Short Hair….you really need to grow up."

"Sh-Shut up! And besides, what are you doing here!?"

"Touma said that he had to do something for school so I asked around and they said he was here."

"Wh-What?! That idiot's here!?"

Kamijou Touma felt faint and resisted the urge to scream into the air and run for his very life. He slowly turned his head and looked towards where the voices were coming from, only to see two forms heading towards him.

Index, wearing her nun's habit was holding Othinus and Sphynx in her arms (Othinus tried to keep a straight face to prevent anyone thinking that she was more than just a doll while Sphynx clawed at her clothing) while Misaka Mikoto raced past the nun and headed towards where both Accelerator and Hamazura were.

She didn't give Kamijou a second thought as she looked towards the both of them were pure joy in her eyes.

"Ah…Gekota, thanks for the hard work. And Pyonko too! B-But what's this!? You've been hurt Pyonko! Who did this to you!? Who was it!?"

Mikoto looked around in contempt as she spotted Kamijou in his ripped Anti-Skill uniform as she narrowed her eyes, approaching the boy as she gave him the once over with her eyes. Kamijou responded by stiffening and standing up rather straight, moving the rifle towards his right hand in the hopes that the weight would prevent any serious muscle spasms from occurring.

Given who was in front of him, he doubted that he would be able to survive the punishment if he slapped these girls in the face and then placed his right hand on their breast.

He whispered a prayer to a higher power to not let things go as they had before as Mikoto pointed towards him and looked towards Pyonko.

"Was it him!? I swear I'll avenge you Pyonko! The villain shall be-"

"Short Hair…what exactly are you doing?"

It was clear on Index's face that her impression of the Level 5 had immediately dropped towards non-existent levels as Mikoto seemed to blush slightly as she had lost herself in her wish to protect that which she loved. She tried to cough and maintain her composure but it was clear that she wasn't fooling anyone.

"Do we even have time to be standing here though?" Index asked while she pouted slightly, bringing both Othinus and Sphynx closer towards her as Othinus seemed to whisper something to her so that no one could hear.

"Right! We have to find Touma! The fridge is empty so I want to visit that 5 star restaurant that he said he would take me to if he forgot the fridge!" Index cried in joy as Kamijou stiffened for an entirely different reason as a cold sweat ran down his entire body.

That was right…he had promised that nun that and he doubted that she would give him the chance to forget it. He suddenly felt as though his wallet had become extremely light and tears rolled down his eyes as he truly figured that if he did not take Index, she would be the one eating a full course meal of Kamijou Touma; well-done of course with a side of misfortune.

Both Hamazura and Accelerator turned towards the boy whose face they could not see as they both truly felt some pity for the boy in front of them.

"H-Hey! Why are you so close to that idiot anyway? What are you to him? If he takes you out to 5 star restaurants, I can't believe that you're just neighbours! Wh-what's your relationship with him?!"

"Short Hair, you can't ask such an important question during a one-shot. The readers will get confused."

"One-shot? Readers?"

Mikoto had no idea what Index was talking about so she merely dropped the issue as Index turned and looked towards Hamazura (Gekota) and smiled as she held out one hand while still holding both Othinus and Sphynx towards her chest.

"I would like a balloon though! Touma once tried to fill up a balloon like mine once and his voice got all funny so I want to try and make Touma's voice all high again. I'm certain that he would have the same voice as Magical Powered Kanamin so all we need is the costume and with Hyouka we can go and play!"

Index said that cheerily as Mikoto frowned towards her.

"What? So I can't have fun with Gekota and you get to ask like a balloon like that? That's some line of thinking around childishness there Silver Sister." Mikoto remarked as Index pouted and turned towards Mikoto with that same glare that Mikoto was giving her in her eyes.

"There's nothing wrong with balloons! It's just that I'm more sophisticated than you in this regard Short Hair. I wouldn't expect an amateur like you to understand."

"Oh ho ho. Is that so? Well then there's nothing wrong with me getting a balloon right?" Mikoto started to butt heads with Index as sparks flew from her bangs however it was clear that Index was not backing off as she merely maintained her position with that same glare.

Sphynx started to struggle within her arms as Othinus tried to avoid the paw that was constantly slamming into her face as Mikoto turned and looked towards Accelerator in his Pyonko suit. The action that she did was only copied by Index as she too faced Hamazura in his Gekota suit.

"One balloon please! Make it better than hers!"

"One balloon please! Make it better than hers!"

They both let out that shout as Accelerator maintained a pissed expression that he knew would never fade and Hamazura truly worried about the mental state and pointless competition that had formed between the two girls.

They both had no idea how to address this issue, turning their smiling heads towards where Kamijou was for an answer to deal with this pain in the ass.

However he was not next to them, having distanced himself away from the group and handing out balloons with his left hand while the rifle was in his right towards those that were passing. The both of them merely blinked towards what they were seeing in pure amazement.

While the both of them had not wanted to see anyone that they knew here, it was not to the extent of wanting to distance themselves from those people if they came by chance. It had been the case with Accelerator and Last Order and it surely would have been the same if Takitsubo Rikou had not sensed Hamazura as they had stayed with those that they knew despite complaining.

Yet Kamijou had distanced himself from the others, not wanting to intrude on what happiness to two (or three?) girls had achieved without him there.

Accelerator had his peace. He had regained it with his two hands and wanted to make sure that the days that he lived from now on with the others by his side was such that he could keep an eye on them at all times to allow that protection.

Hamazura Shiage was the same and it was clear that the both of them truly wanted to be there to witness every smile and emotion that came from those that they had saved.

It might have been selfish of them but they wanted to be the ones to make those that they had protected smile and to hold them close to allow that fact to shine.

But for Kamijou, it seemed as though that was too far.

He merely wanted them to smile and although they had the chance to do so because of him, it was that very thought that allowed him to distance himself. They were happy because of something that Kamijou had done and that was his mark. Even if they were with someone else or never met him again, he had solace in the realisation that some part of them was happy because of him.

He had seen a world where everyone was happy and where he was not needed. In that world, Kamijou Touma had not been needed and he had not been able to bear it.

But the regained world was one where Kamijou Touma had saved someone. It was the one that had been fought for despite the struggles he had faced. He had protected someone and it had not been a world where there were perfect smiles everywhere.

And the fact that he had managed to do that little thing allowed him to smile himself. It allowed him to view those smiles from afar and truly think that it was alright to fade into the background if he wanted.

He did not have to be by their side despite having saved them.

Them being happy and smiling was enough for him.

It seemed as though the distance that was between that spiky haired boy and those in the frog suits had grown immensely as both of the boys truly wondered if it was right for them to hand out those balloons to those girls that would surely be happy without him.

Accelerator personally did not want to do it because of the role Mikoto had played in the Experiment. Hamazura Shiage did not want to hand the balloons to the nun in front of him because of the fact that it was clear that doing so when Accelerator did not want to would lead to a strange fight between the two girls.

But at the same time, the both of them respected Kamijou Touma enough to not trample on the smiles that he himself had formed. He had protected these smiles and whether the boys wanted to admit it or not, they too had been protected by that boy.

A fight.

A punch to the face.

An illusion destroyed.

A life restored.

The parallels between the two of them started in the exact same place and the path that they had now was started because of that one boy that merely distanced himself because the smiles were enough. That was surely noble and in response to that debt that was between them and Kamijou, they only had to respond by allowing those smiles on those faces to continue shining.

Accelerator said nothing as he handed Misaka Mikoto a blue balloon.

Hamazura Shiage said nothing as he handed Index a red balloon.

"See? Mine's red! Obviously better than yours Short Hair!" Index said those words with her chest puffed out as Othinus face palmed due to the ridiculousness of the competition that was between the two of them.

"Hah! Well the one that Pyonko chose is obviously miles better than Gekota's!" It was clear that although Mikoto said those words, she kept on glancing towards Gekota in order to see if as a fan, she had betrayed the mascot that she loved so much.

Yet as the both of them looked towards their balloons, it was clear that they had no intention of settling the fight there as they had been handed balloons by two different people. They could not get another balloon from the other person in the suit as that would defeat the purpose of the exercise in getting the balloons.

Which meant that they had to outsource.

"Excuse me siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiir!"

"Excuse me siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiir!"

Both Index and Mikoto had the same idea at the same time as they shouted out towards the Anti-Skill member that was handing out balloons as they raced in front of him and held out their hands while pressing against each other's faces.

"Can we please have a balloon!?"

"Can we please have a balloon!?"

Kamijou backed off in pure surprise at the request that was being given towards him, looking up towards those that had given them balloons in the first place. His helmeted face met the faces of those that were wearing the suits as the subtle turning of the heads away from those that were asking for balloons were enough of a message for him.

This was his place, his smiles that he had protected.

They were meant for him and him alone and there was no place for others there.

Kamijou obviously felt as though there was always the chance for others to get involved and fit in but he was merely thankful right now for the opportunity given towards him.

He faced those that he had protected and held out his left hand as Index stepped forward, shoving Mikoto to the side silently as she let out a "Hey!" as she held out both of her hands with that smile.

Next to her, Mikoto sighed in an exasperated tine however the fact that she was allowing herself to be pushed around only showed how relaxed she was in this situation.

That peace had been one that Kamijou Touma had wanted to maintain no matter what, those smiles ones that he had protected and wanted to do so for a long time.

He held out his left hand.

It happened suddenly.

Although Kamijou's right hand was holding the rifle, the extra weight only seemed to prevent it from going up fully to strike Index in the face. It instead lifted the weight that was the rifle, moving to the left as it always had although angled downwards slightly and not going all the way up Index's body.

The bayonet on the edge of the rifle caught onto part of Index's habit on the lower portion, slicing through the material easily with a ripping sound.

But the muscle spasm was far from over as his right arm dropped, the bayonet that had caught on the material that was Index's habit's leg ripping it from its place and causing the entire habit to fall apart in the process from the lower down.

Accelerator and Hamazura turned their heads upon the sound of the magnificent ripping however Mikoto was blocking their vision of the pure white thighs and what lay underneath the habit itself.

Index immediately noticed the breeze that tickled her legs and looked down, noticing how the only thing that was protecting her lower half were her visible panties (only visible to the person in front of her and behind her) as Kamijou made a choking sound.

As Mikoto was behind to the girl, she too made the same choking sound as Kamijou as the rifle fell from Kamijou's limp hand and clattered to the ground.

That was enough of a signal for Index as she screamed, crouching down and using what remained of her habit to cover herself as she dropped Sphynx and Othinus, the former grabbing the latter on his mouth but still watching the scene unfold. Tears welled up in the corners of Index's eyes as she tried her best to hold them back as Kamijou felt as though some part of him had died in shame and sorrow.

That part of him was revived as Mikoto kicked him in the leg, causing him to collapse to the ground as she gave him a look that suggested that she thought he was worse than scum.

"Just what you think you're doing!?"

"It was the muscle spasms! I swear on my-"

Kamijou said nothing more as his voice stopped in mid-sentence as he realised what he had just done.

He had spoken, revealing his identity towards those that, right in this situation, he did not want finding out his identity. It seemed as though it was too late as Mikoto, Index and even Othinus turned towards the Anti-skill 'officer' with surprise evident on their faces.

"T….Touma?"

"Y…..You?"

"H….Human?"

Kamijou said nothing as he slowly started to back away, trying to think of a witty remark to try and say in this situation but it was clear in the circumstances that anything that was said was going to be heard on deaf ears.

He had given himself away and there was nothing that he could do to escape what was to come next.

That didn't mean that he couldn't try though.

"Ahahahahahaha!"

Kamijou let out a sudden laugh that stunned those that were looking at him with shock. He took advantage of that entirely, using the opportunity to angle his body and limbs in such a way that made him look as though he was going to take off entirely.

"Thank you for your business."

And with that he lifted himself up-

Only for the metal parts of his uniform to suddenly jerk backwards as he fell backwards. He hit the ground violently as he felt a foot stomp on his chest, preventing him from moving entirely as he looked up Mikoto's skirt and seeing nothing but gym shorts as the girl cracked her knuckles.

"I hope that you're prepared for this, sexual harasser." She spat out.

"Touma…I hope you're going to learn the lesson we're going to give you right now." Index said those words as she slowly rose while grabbing her ripped habit from the ground and using it to protect her lower half.

"Aim for the legs in the first strike to prevent him from running." Othinus gave her instructions as a god of war that suggested that she was trying to prevent movement altogether.

Mikoto, Index and Othinus all looked towards Kamijou with contempt as the boy turned his head towards the only people he knew would help him out.

But Accelerator and Hamazura Shiage were gone.

"Th-Those bastards?! They ditched meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee?!"

Sparks flew, fangs were sharpened and a small voice giving instructions to maximise the damage filled the air as the Anti-Skill officer was made an example of.

Naturally though, none of the balloons survived.

* * *

"Should we have done that?" asked Hamazura Shiage towards the Pyonko that was running next to him as they made their way through the Anti-Skill exhibition hall in District 3.

"I don't give a fuck anymore. I'm going home and I suggest you do the same trash. Forget what happened here today, for both of our sakes. Got it?"

It was clear that the suggestion that came from the white haired boy was a command rather than a suggestion in nature but the horrific shout that screamed through the air truly made the two boys think one thing.

Today's events were surely going to be in their memory as one of the days where the three of them had not relaxed at all.

"SUCH MISFORTUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

They only hoped that the next time wasn't this chaotic but with the two Level 0s and a Level 5, it was hard to say for sure.

* * *

**I did it again didn't I?**

**I said that I'd do something and then it goes all over the place as I try and put it on paper. I guess the first question that I have to ask is what did you think of this?**

**What I was going for originally was something like Chapter 10 but in the end it turned more into the development of the lives of the Three Heroes although with a one-sided loli discussion. The important thing here was maybe the fact that despite their own lives, the ones that were saved were given balloons or at least treatment by their heroes.**

**Last Order gave Accelerator a hug, Shiage had those that he had protected surround him and Touma got a look at those smiles that he values so much.**

**I also touched upon something that I felt was nice; the fact that the road that both Shiage and Accelerator took are not that different in their beginnings or origins in how they met Touma and the events that happened afterwards. I guess the fact that they wanted to repay him in a small way for giving them that is something that I might address in ACUL0 because it's so powerful.**

**This was really fun though to write merely because I tried to balance Accelerator's personality where he doesn't want to do anything with the personality of Shiage that seems to get dragged into things with Touma's that can be moulded to fit both of those but doing so in a way that seemed like a fun was hard. After all, the balloons were all destroyed in the end so it seems as though the trip that they did was wasted.**

**It was a challenge and I hope that you liked it.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**I did it lighthearted! See! I said I could do it!**


	17. The Memory of Long Ago II

**One thing that you should probably know about me. When it comes to projects, especially ACUL0 and my other main project Aura Less, it is BTL that I usually end up typing whenever I have an hour to spare. The others, I need at least 2 hours to get a pace up so if you can imagine some guy sitting at a keyboard for a few hours….that's probably me.**

**But when I get to these, their shortness (well, for a few of them) is somewhat relaxing for me when I get a pace up. You know what I mean?**

**Well, whatever. From the title, you might be thinking "Gack!? Has he run out of ideas!? Judging by the flow of stories, this should be an original!" Well the answer is no, I have not run out of ideas. I just felt as though I should at least do a second part for something that has filled my head for a while now.**

**And this is it then. If we're talking about one-shots here, it's probably like this chapter is another one-shot with the same theme if you know what I mean. Personally, I think it's easier to think that these sort of things are connected and within their own 'verse' (it becomes important for other one-shots here that are more like stories) but for this particular one-shot it doesn't really matter.**

**And for this second part, once again I would like to thank my beta PokeRescue18. You guys spend at least a few second in silent thought for his hard work here! Do it now! I command youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu! But in all seriousness, thanks for your work.**

**And to you, the reader. I want to thank you for all the tolerance that you have for everything that I manage to do. Whether it be chaotic or merely simplified in a really strange way, I want you to know that I am grateful for those that read this.**

**For those that read this, you might think that this is a Christmas double update for me (for those that also read A Certain Unknown Level 0), but where I am, it's Christmas right now. For those that wanted it, here is some Misaki love. And from both me and PokeRescue18, Merry 2015 Christmas and I hope that you have a Happy New Year!**

**I'll see you next year and hope that it is as good as this one!**

**So, I merely hope you enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

The Memory that Only One Remembers. _Connection_in_the_Friendship_.

"Why are you even friends with her in the first place?"

That question filled the supposedly tranquil space however the tension that sprang up in the air the instant that the words were spoken only revealed how much weight that they had.

However, without a care, Shokuhou Misaki sipped her tea, letting the liquid swirl in her mouth before she swallowed it. Elegantly, she placed her cup onto her saucer and looked up towards the person that had spoken towards her.

"My, my Misaka-san. A question with such a lack of respect ability. Could it be that there is something wrong that you see with the people I associate with?" Shokuhou asked her question smoothly as if it didn't faze her. Yet the person she addressed did not even look her way as Misaka Mikoto frowned towards her and looked towards the Ringlet curl girl that was sitting across from Shokuhou at the table.

Said girl had stood up in response to Mikoto's question but it was clear from the expression on her face that her pride had been deeply offended by what Mikoto had said.

"Misaka-san! I hardly think that such a statement should come out of the mouth of the Ace of Tokiwadai!"

Mikoto merely frowned in response and the group that was surrounding Shokuhou did not seem to faze her in the slightest as she kept her focus on them all, turning and not meeting the gaze of her fellow Level 5.

"Well it's a good question! You know, I've had it up to here with you Shokuhou! Just yesterday, I saw you manipulating someone because you couldn't be bothered to get your own stationary! How can you do that to someone without their permission?"

Whether it be because of a sense of justice or merely because it had reached a point where Mikoto could not overlook it anymore, she had approached the Clique of the Queen and had asked the members of her clique that question. Naturally though, now that they were faced with the reasoning behind her outrageous question, a few of the members of Shokuhou's clique turned towards Shokuhou.

"Queen?"

The Ringlet curl girl asked her question with a raised eyebrow that truly seemed as though she was surprised while Shokuhou merely took another sip of her tea as if it had nothing to do with her.

"Yes? Is there some kind of problem ability with me wanting to have someone else do something for me? The outside has such great clamour ability so I merely borrowed someone else for the job. Of course I naturally returned their money. I am not a thief you know," remarked Shokuhou. "Unless someone has the nerve ability to suggest such?"

"Wha-"

Before she knew it, the members of Shokuhou's clique had turned their gaze from their Queen towards the Ace, frowning as they realised the implications of what Mikoto had said towards them.

"I didn't say anything like that! I think it's a valid point though! If someone can be friends with someone else that can take control of them at the press of a button, quite literally, then I think that there's more to it than that! Why are you all friends with this Level 5 here?" asked Mikoto.

"M-Misaka-san, you see the thing is-"

"We're-"

"Y-You've got it wrong!"

"The Queen isn't that bad of a person…"

Numerous people tried to speak over one another to counter Mikoto's question as Shokuhou rose a hand to ask them to all be silent, even if it was only for a moment. Yet the simple movement from the girl was enough to silence the crowd as they waited eagerly for the words that were to flow from her mouth.

"Misaka-san." Shokuhou moved, for the first time since she had spotted Mikoto heading over through the use of her 'unofficial' scouts. She turned to face the Level 5, crossing her legs over each other while resting a fist on her cheek as she leaned on said fist.

"I hardly think that it is fair for you to doubt me and my clique's friendship ability. After all, if we're talking about things that other people cannot overlook, I'm sure that there are some things that you would not like to talk to others about? Yet as one looks past those things they still maintain some friendship ability with an Amazon like you, correct?"

"What are you trying to say?"

"Perhaps the fact of the matter is that you are jealous of the numbers that I have accumulated? While one might say 'quality over quantity', I can truly say that everyone here, apart from you of course Misaka-san, has worked hard to be a part of something that is larger than them. Or are you suggesting that you want to join? I think that with a few years training, you might have the decency ability to be a part of my wonderful clique."

Shokuhou's words were calm and collected however Mikoto was having none of it, stepping up towards the other Level 5 and shoving a finger into her face.

"Let. Me. Get. This Straight. There is no way that I am joining your clique. Understand?" Mikoto's words were oddly sharp however Shokuhou responded by grabbing a remote out of her handbag and placed it on the tip of the finger that was pointed towards her.

"So I would suppose that you would not understand why it is that I have so many members then. If you do not join then what. Do. You. Know. Of. Ours. Bonds. Here?" Shokuhou tapped the remote's tip against Mikoto's finger with every word, leaving a grin on her face that only revealed her true emotions towards Mikoto.

Mikoto scowled, shivering slightly towards the fact that Shokuhou had turned the question that had been directed towards those around her back towards Mikoto herself. She had questioned the nature of their friendship, why they had been friends, and that devious breast monster had turned it around, saying that it was above Mikoto's ability to comprehend what bound them.

There was no way that Mikoto wanted to be a part of it and Shokuhou knew it. After all, she had stated it herself.

As a result though, what had Mikoto essentially done?

She had refused to understand, posed a question that was completely unfair towards those around Mental Out before declaring that Shokuhou Misaki had the capability of being a thief if she so desired.

Mikoto had started by wanting to confront Shokuhou on her nature, yet she found herself being the one judged with the simple words that were being directed towards her. It was simply terrifying how that girl had such power, not only over the mind but also over the heart. It seemed as though her power was not something that allowed her to manipulate such, but rather an extension of what she could already do without her ability.

That thought alone was the source of that chill down her spine as Mikoto retracted her finger, feeling the stares of those that were around her. She ignored them though, turning her back and heading off. Leaving it there was the best way to end their conversation and both of the Level 5s knew it.

Mikoto hurried away however briefly stopped, turning her head back once more.

"Do what you like," The Railgun's dislike for Mental Out was clear in her voice. "But don't think for a minute that I'm going to stand for you controlling people that have nothing to do with your clique."

"Then maybe you should stop dragging people weaker than you in terms of ability and Level into your own personal conflicts?" Shokuhou smoothly responded as Mikoto froze, turning and facing Shokuhou with a look that almost froze ice.

The clique around her jumped almost as if they were wondering what was so off about what Shokuhou had said. Surely, they were talking about Shirai Kuroko correct? While the Teleporter was lower in ability and Level than Mikoto, had she ever been dragged into a personal conflict of the Railgun?

They could not say but it was possible.

But it seemed as though the person that Mikoto thought that Shokuhou had addressed was someone different. But who could it have been?

Shokuhou's expression did not change from its slight smile however that frightful expression on Mikoto's face changed immediately, as she turned her back and spoke once more.

"You leave Kuroko out of this."

So they had been talking about Shirai? The expression that had previously been on her face suggested that maybe that wasn't the case but her comment just then changed the minds of those around the Level 5s.

They watched the Railgun leave as Shokuhou moved back into the pose that she had previously, sitting fully at the table with her legs underneath it as she took her cup in her hand and took another sip of the tea. She pulled a face though. For some reason, it suddenly tasted bitter.

Shokuhou though felt as though the conversation that they had held was not something that they could have in a calm state of mind. Although it was a low blow, Shokuhou knew better than most the lowness of the blow that she had left Mikoto with. She would never state it but she did indeed feel somewhat bad for the girl that she had stated it to.

Someone with a power lower than a Level 5.

Someone that had been dragged into the Level 5's personal conflict.

Someone that had managed to fight against all odds and pull through despite the odds.

Both Shokuhou and Mikoto knew of such a person however it was clear that Mikoto only thought that Shokuhou had been talking about Shirai Kuroko. While Mikoto had thought she was addressing a certain person, she had quickly reassessed that option due to the fact that she thought that Shokuhou did not know that certain person.

Oh, how things were so different.

Still though, it seemed as though the question that had been posed stirred up old memories as Shokuhou Misaki found herself staring into the liquid in her cup, losing herself in how the wind made the tea ripple in response to the breeze.

"Queen?"

The Ringlet curl girl spoke up as Shokuhou looked up towards her, tilting her head in response to what it was that the girl was saying.

"Do not mind about what the Railgun says. I and I am sure that everyone else here truly thinks of you as a precious friend. Our bonds are something that go beyond just being classmates in the same school. We are bound for certain my Queen. And we will always be your friends."

"Indeed!"

"Do not worry Queen!"

"We will follow you wherever you need to go!"

"My life has greatly changed because of you!"

"I've never found someone as lovely and elegant as you!"

The comments that were directed towards her made Shokuhou smile however at the same time, the smile felt hollow. Rehearsed and half hearted.

But still she maintained it, brushing her hair out of her face as she slowly stood up and faced those that were around her with that same smile.

"And for that I thank you everyone. Deeply. However part of me thinks that I need the independence ability to acquire my own stationary." She let out a small chuckle that seemed to flow from her to the other people standing around her as she took a remote that was on the table and placed it in her bag.

She took said bag from her chair and placed it over her shoulder, standing up and letting someone else pull out her chair as she moved. She nodded in thanks towards the person that had pulled out the chair and turned towards the Ringlet curl girl.

"I expect to be back by curfew. Please though, make sure that the Dorm Manager of our Dorm is not informed of my lack of tardiness ability if it comes to such."

"Understood my Queen."

The words that were spoken did not only come from the Ringlet curl girl's mouth but instead seemed to spread from her mouth towards those of the girls around her as Shokuhou nodded and headed off.

While she did so though, she felt her mind wander. She had lied and doing so had been easy. She did not need to acquire anymore stationary, after all just as Mikoto had said, she had gotten some from someone else through the use of her powers.

No, she instead let herself be washed away by something that existed long ago, in a summer that seemed so far away.

_"Why are you even friends with her in the first place?"_

The words that had been spoken by Misaka Mikoto ran deep, not only because of the fact that it had been her that said them but that it had been her that had dredged up these memories of old.

Yet as Shokuhou Misaki felt herself wander, the memory that came with those words came to the forefront of her mind.

This was one of her many memories.

Memories of that summer that seemed so long ago.

* * *

"Why are you even friends with me in the first place?"

The question and tone that the small Shokuhou Misaki had asked in the blazing summer heat of August made it seemed as though she was asking more out of boredom rather than actual curiosity. Yet the nature of her words was something that was from the heart as she looked at the person she was with.

Kamijou Touma, the spiky haired boy that was sitting on the park bench with her seemed surprised at the question.

They had met today by chance.

While it was summer vacation and Shokuhou was made to wear her school uniform, it seemed she felt it too hot to be wearing something that was designed for school. Kamijou himself was wearing something casual that slightly made Shokuhou jealous but she would never tell him.

They had met inside a convenience store, Shokuhou looking for some freshly baked éclairs that she knew the convenience store had to which the spiky haired boy had also entered. It seemed as though once again he was frustrated about something and naturally, when Shokuhou had asked him about it, they had spent the majority of the time trying to get his card out of the ATM machine.

It had hardly been fun but after they had managed to get it out (at the cost of one perfectly good ATM machine), the boy had offered to take her out for a treat in thanks for sticking with him. She had obliged; after all she had nothing better to do today.

Not only that but she was glad to grace this boy with her presence. After all, when she was with him it seemed as though the pressure and weight of her rank of Level 5 was lifted and she was nothing more than a normal girl with a normal boy. Of course they had their problems but with him, they all were shoved to the side as they allowed themselves the luxury of each other's company.

But as the ice cream in her hand melted, Shokuhou Misaki truly had to ask that one question.

She did not want to look at this boy's mind.

She had set up that personal rule.

But as a result, she could only get the answer to certain questions by asking straight out the question itself in the hope that the boy would not lie. He did not seem to be the type to do so, especially when it came towards a question of such a serious nature despite her tone.

Perhaps though, there might come to the day where she would want to break such a rule however the mindset she would have in that moment was something that she did not know in the current moment. Regardless though, right now, she spoke clearly and honestly to ask her question.

Indeed, Kamijou seemed a bit stunned at the question that she had asked, looking down at the ice cream in his hands with something that looked as though there was an immense amount of guilt on his face.

Shokuhou truly felt as though a stake had been driven into her heart as he made that face as she realised that the illusion of normalcy that she had dreamed up when she was with him was broken. Of course they had problems. Of course time and reality did not cease just because they were together.

It was just a feeling that Shokuhou had had when she was with Kamijou Touma.

But at the same time, the realisation that it was an illusion seemed to shock her deeply.

But the instant she had that thought, the expression on the boy's face changed instantly as if that expression was never there. Had it all been Shokuhou's imagination?

But before she could make any enquires into his troubles, he gave his answer as to why he thought that they were friends.

"Money."

"….What?"

"Money of course."

Shokuhou sat there stunned as she let the ice cream melt and roll down her hand without a care as Kamijou answered with a deadpan expression as he looked at her.

"What? Did you expect anything different? With that flat chest of course and the whole 'I'm a Level 5' attitude!? Let me tell you Mini-hou, you need to understand the importance of respecting your elders."

"M-Mini-!?"

Shokuhou found herself trying to compose herself somewhat however it was clear that the boy had no intention on stopping talking.

"Besides, as a Level 0 you know what my funds are!? They are a desert! A desert I tell you! Sucked up and dry. So you know what a Level 5's funds are to me? An oasis! A fresh drink of water within this desert of poverty! The stuff I buy is cheap, because I know there's something wrong with it! So that's why we're friends Shokuhou Misaki; Mental Out. So that you can help me in a financial crisis, which is every day!"

Shokuhou Misaki found herself agape but at the same time felt as though something inside her had shrivelled up and died.

Was that….all she was? Nothing more than a walking, talking wallet?

Sure, she had committed herself to not look into his mind but that was something that he didn't know. Usually, she could tell that he was honest because there was the chance that she could read his mind, meaning that to prevent him from being caught out on lying, he simply didn't do it.

But more than that, the veil lifted and her thoughts and illusions around what she thought she had with the boy were gone.

There was an unbelievable sense of calm when she was with him. She truly felt as though she was not a Level 5, she was not Mental Out and that she did not have numerous expectations placed on her as a result of having those roles.

She had felt that all of her problems surrounding those things had disappeared in the moments that they spent together.

However that was simply an illusion.

She was a Level 5, someone that Kamijou Touma could take advantage of in the sense that she had more funds than him. As a result of such a thing, for a Level 0 having her as a friend was something like a personal loan giver with no interest and no repayments. For someone in the position of a Level 0, was there anything else that one would desire?

Shokuhou understood that there were desires out there that seemed to grasp human beings and change them, turning their minds and thought processes into directions and actions that one would not have thought possible of such people.

And greed was one of them.

She rarely thought good things about people she did not 'read' but she had felt in the bottom of her heart that Kamijou Touma was a good person in nature, although his actions and tastes were somewhat odd.

Yet the realisation that she had only showed that she had been deceived. She had been tricked and she had not noticed the darkness within the heart of the boy that she had called a 'friend'. No, were they that anymore?

Weren't they nothing more than 'wallet' and 'thief'?

Shokuhou Misaki, the wallet who would always provide.

Kamijou Touma, the thief who had stolen something more than just an assumed friendship from her.

He had taken the peace that the small girl had thought that she had gained in his presence.

"You…"

There was something that Shokuhou wanted to say in response. Words came to her mind to address his own words however she still felt as though whatever she was going to say would only make her realise that she had accepted what he had said.

That she could not have 'friends'.

That humans and people always had ulterior motives.

That no matter what people said, the good would die young as seen with Dolly and the evil would flourish.

That Shokuhou Misaki would always be…

"You…!"

She never got another word out as Kamijou karate chopped her head in a light fashion with a bored expression on his face.

"Now, did you really think that I would say something like that there Shokuhou-kun?"

"Huh?"

Kamijou Touma dispelled those doubts instantly, as if the doubts that he had given her were nothing more than sweet smelling but poisonous fruit that she had almost taken. She had been drawn in by their allure and almost tasted and accepted their poison however Kamijou had revealed to her the nature of the fruit, saving her in the process.

But still, she was confused. She had been drawn away from her image of greed she had placed on Kamijou and the thought that she could never have any friends. So then why had the boy uttered those words that had placed those doubts inside her?

She gave a worried look that she rarely revealed towards other people as Kamijou sighed while looking straight at her, not scared to face her head on.

"Honestly, you took me seriously? Don't place your own thoughts on someone just because they say something that upsets you there Shokuhou. 'Why are we friends'? I ask you the same thing. I'm sure that the answer will present itself."

"W-Why are we friends?" asked Shokuhou in response as she looked down at the ice cream that was in her hands, melting as time passed as she considered the question.

Why were they friends?

They had first met when he had bumped into her on an intersection. He had seen her panties on a mountain in District 21. They had learned their names in District 7's underground mall.

But in those events and right now, they had met and stuck together, hanging out and merely enjoying each other's company as they took advantage of the chance meetings that they had come across every now and then. There was nothing overly special about the meetings but somehow, Shokuhou Misaki had formed her own special thoughts and rules governing them.

Those meetings were important enough for the small girl to set up those rules…but in the lead up towards them, she truly asked herself one thing.

Why were they friends?

Was it because they had bumped into each other? Because the boy had prevented her from erasing her own memories? Because the meetings that they had erased a sense of expectation and pressure that was placed on her as a Level 5?

She went through numerous reasons, trying to find a common factor however stopped as she realised the truth about the nature of the relationship between her and Kamijou Touma.

"I don't know."

She gave an honest response as she turned towards the boy. As a person, the question that she had asked the boy and the one that Kamijou had responded in turn with was a challenging question.

Why were their meetings so important to them?

Why whenever they met did the smile on Shokuhou Misaki's face turn into a genuine one that revealed her natural beauty and showed it off faultlessly?

Why, whenever they met, did she feel as though the weight that was on her shoulders was lifted to the extent that she could spread her wings and fly?

Why did she feel that?

Why was she friends with Kamijou Touma and why was he friends with her?

She did not know.

She didn't know however the thought of losing this connection that she had made in this City of Science was something that she could not bear to think about. She couldn't think about losing it and she didn't want to either. That in turn revealed how important the connection was to her.

It was important enough to make her want to keep it despite not realising the reason for that emotion within her.

Her own heart was conflicted as she turned towards the boy who merely smiled. Kamijou rose his hand and placed it on her blond haired head, ruffling the hair slightly as he gave a response that merely added towards her confusion.

"I'd say that's the right answer."

"But….what do you mean? How is that an answer? What binds us? Why are we happy when we are together? Why are you friends with me?" She asked her questions and somehow felt her voice rising.

It was irresponsible of her as a first year middle school student to ask someone that was in his final year however perhaps it was because he was older that she asked those unfair questions.

As her role as a Level 5, she was surely smarter than the boy sitting next from her. Indeed, their results if they were to compare them would suggest such. However right now, the girl that honestly had the answers to a number of impossible questions was stumped by something that seemed so simple.

She looked at Kamijou who seemed honestly surprised that she was so up in arms about it as he merely tilted his head.

"What are you talking about? Who cares?"

His answer made no sense.

But somehow, somehow, she felt as though that stupid answer was something that was so simple that she had overlooked it completely.

"Who cares why we're friends? Who cares why we're happy when we're together? Who cares what binds us? The point is that we are bound, we are happy and we are friends. I haven't thought about a reason Shokuhou because I don't need one. I'm your friend. Me, Kamijou Touma is friends with you, Shokuhou Misaki. It's no more complicated than that." Kamijou stated those words simply as if he had put no thought into them but then again, that was the simple truth.

His answer sounded like he didn't put any thought into it because he didn't have to.

When people disagreed and thought about breaking off a friendship, they often thought to themselves 'Why was I friends with that person in the first place'? However from what Kamijou was saying, that type of thinking was nothing more than a question that was conveniently asked to make one feel better about breaking off that friendship.

There was no proper reason for them to be friends. They simply were such and those bonds that had been formed between them didn't need an over complicated reason.

They were happy in each other's company and that was all that they needed to continue their meetings by chance. They were friends and at the heart of the matter, that was the only reason that they needed.

Shokuhou Misaki truly felt dumbfounded that she had asked such a question of the boy. It wasn't that she realised that it was an irresponsible one. It was simply that by asking it, she had tried to put a 'number' on what they had. She had tried to narrow down their reason for being together.

If they were friends, did she have the right to do that? Was she not satisfied with what they had? Did she need to question it?

The answer that the boy gave only showed her one thing: that he didn't try to narrow down what they had because he valued it that much. Whenever they were together, it was only him and Shokuhou Misaki.

Kamijou Touma did not need reasons or over complications.

He was a simple soul.

However Shokuhou Misaki felt as though some part of her had made an accurate assessment.

He was a good person in his heart.

"Is that all we need though?" asked Shokuhou.

"Why? Do you need something else?" responded Kamijou.

"No, it's just-"

"Then why is there is a problem? Shokuhou," Kamijou called her name and she looked up towards him, seeing that he had stuck out his ice cream in front of her. She watched it in confusion but Kamijou merely held that hand in front of him. "Let's make a toast. To us."

Shokuhou looked at the extended ice cream and did something that she felt she only did rarely in public but always with the boy in front of her.

She didn't need a reason.

She only needed to accept what it was.

And with that pure smile on her face that radiated and revealed her beauty, with glittering, starry eyes, she touched her ice cream against Kamijou's on that park bench.

"To us."

She responded with those words.

Just as the ice cream on her cone fell off and splatted on the ground.

Both of them looked at the remains of what had been her ice cream, staring at how their moment of seriousness and elation had been ruined given the falling of the ice cream.

The both of them looked at each other with stunned faces and that was all they needed as they looked at each other's shocked expression.

"Hahahahahaha!

"Hahahahahahahaha!"

Both of them erupted into joyous laughter on the bench as Kamijou's ice cream also fell to the ground, landing next to Shokuhou's however the both of them were beyond caring as they unleashed those laughs into the air.

They quickly settled down and grinned at each other as Shokuhou spoke once more.

"I want another one. Actually, I would prefer an éclair with great delicacy ability honestly." She stated simply.

"Ah, no. I told you remember. Even if the money thing was a joke to get my point across, my funds really are a desert!" complained Kamijou.

Shokuhou pouted though in response.

"Speaking of which, why did you use such a roundabout way to get your point across?"

"Oh? Were you nervous there Mini-hou? That's what you get for cheapening what we have here." replied Kamijou with an arrogant expression on his face.

"And what is that nickname!? Do you insist on mocking me regardless of what we have?! As punishment ability, I demand an éclair!"

"What!? Given your lacking status in terms of a lady image, I think that Mini-hou suits you perfectly. And why do I have to buy you something? Do it yourself!"

"Because the reason my ice cream fell off in the first place is due to your toast ability!" replied Shokuhou perfectly.

"But you have more funds! W-Wait, I think this satisfies the conditions of a financial crisis! You have to help me out here as the role of the oasis in the desert of funds!"

"I thought we didn't need a reason to be friends so that argument ability is mute! I have no obligation to help you out financially! I hardly care for you that much!"

"W-What?! But I thought that I had raised the 'friendship equals financial support flag'!?" Kamijou made an incoherent comment as Shokuhou gave him a deadpan expression, as she held out her hand.

"Éclair. Now."

"You're serious!? But my funds! My funds! S…Such misfortune."

Shokuhou Misaki though did not respond to the down trodden wishes of the boy as she grabbed his hand and practically dragged him from the bench, leading him to where she wanted to go as they bantered along the way.

Kamijou complained and Shokuhou retorted with wit.

But although that was the case, the smiles that were on their faces only showed how much they loved having moments like these.

* * *

If Shokuhou Misaki thought about it now, what her clique had said in response to Misaka Mikoto's question only served to quantify the friendship that she had with the members of her clique. There was nothing overly wrong with that but at the same time, she felt as though she was lacking something that she had been deprived of for a long time.

The small moments of relaxation that she had with Kamijou Touma.

Those moments would never return, she knew that however as the Queen of Tokiwadai stopped walking to gather her surroundings, she still knew the small wish that she had inside her heart.

The wish for a miracle to have those days back again.

"Honestly, where exactly am I?" Shokuhou asked her question aloud as she looked around, noting that she had left the area around Tokiwadai and School Garden completely as she was lost in her thoughts. Her breathing was fast as she seemed to realise that she had been walking for some time, catching sight of something in the distance.

The convenience store across from her was the place where the memory that she had just recalled started.

Shokuhou stared at it for a moment before deciding on a whim to cross the road at the traffic lights and walking inside the store, smiling somewhat as she noted how the interior was practically the same as what she remembered beforehand.

"Welcome."

The employee at the counter said his normal greeting as she nodded in response, half listening towards what he was saying as she felt somewhat satisfied.

She had no chance of regaining those times with Kamijou Touma anymore. Yet those places where they had shared those precious memories of that lovely summer would live forever in her heart as a shining light to be grasped at a moment's notice.

For now, she was satisfied.

And the recollection that she had only further solidified that thought.

(Ah. I've been wallowing in my thoughts for too long. I think that it's time to head back.)

Shokuhou had that thought as she stood in the doorway of the convenience store, taking in everything that she remembered about the place she had once visited long ago before she did what she knew she had to do.

She turned her back on it and began to move forward to where she had to be.

However –

"Y-You're kidding. Zero!?"

A voice belonging to a person from next to the door that she had failed to notice upon entering caused her to look at the person that was currently in a state of shock at what they were seeing on the ATM screen that was in front of them.

Kamijou Touma did not turn around, his focus entirely on the number on the ATM screen, a cold sweat covering his entire body as he seemed to realise one thing. And in response to that realisation, he grabbed the sides of the ATM and shoved his face into the screen as if trying to deny the existence of the number in front of him.

"I think that the zero is supposed to be preceded by something else right? Right?! Th-The screen must be broken. Ahahahaha! That's right! My misfortune is playing tricks on me! Ahahaha!"

Kamijou let out a hearty laugh as he nodded to himself, typing in the amount that he wished to withdrawn and pressing the 'Enter' button.

A buzzing sound came from the ATM as both Shokuhou and Kamijou looked at the new message on the ATM screen.

[Funds unavailable. Current balance: 0 Yen.]

They both (or more accurately, Kamijou did more so) stood stunned as Kamijou managed to pull a stiff smile as he ejected his ATM card and sighed.

"Well, I best write my will now. Because I'm dead when I get home. Tonight's dinner will be a fresh serve of raw Kamijou served with a side order of blood. I hope that that calico cat and nun will be satisfied. Ahahaha! Such misfortune!"

His voice was light however the aura of doom that covered him made it seem as though that he had truly fallen into despair as he picked up the school bag by the side of the ATM and dragged his feet along the ground towards the entrance where Shokuhou was standing.

She did not know why she did it.

Perhaps it was the want for those treasured moments to return even though they had been lost?

Or perhaps it was because she found value in helping the person that had done so much for her without ever remembering it.

But in the end, when she thought about it, she didn't need a reason for it.

After all, at least for her, they were more than just friends. Her feelings for Kamijou Touma had gone past that stage quite a while ago, in that same summer of her memories.

"Do you need some assistance ability there? May I help you with your financial problems?"

Shokuhou asked her question as Kamijou rose his head, turning towards her and looking behind him before pointing a finger towards himself.

"Sorry, are you talking to me?"

"Do you see someone else with money troubles around here?"

"Y-You're talking to me aren't you!? You are!" The sudden change in expression seemed to suggest that he had found a true angel amidst the horror of his daily life. However it soon changed as he realised something else as he shook his head.

"Ah, no sorry! I can't accept that! I mean, you don't need to do that! I'm sure that I'll manage or something. I usually do so there's no need to go out of your way for me. Thank you though." Kamijou smiled towards Shokuhou and she found herself returning it upon instinct.

Although she had turned away from those memories because she knew that they would never return, what she truly thought about her own desires was reflected in that smile.

"No, no. I insist. How much do you need?" Kamijou was clearly going to reject however Shokuhou had already placed her card within the ATM and had her elegant fingers placed over the buttons to type in her PIN.

"Ah, no! I just…." Kamijou though seemed to realise that the mysterious stranger was not backing down in any regard as he merely turned away as Shokuhou typed in her PIN.

"Well?"

"I…" It seemed as though Kamijou was unsure about whether or not to tell her the figure as Shokuhou merely blinked in regard, typing in a random figure as the ATM ejected two notes that she held out towards the boy.

"This should cover your financial ability needs correct?"

Kamijou turned towards the two notes and went white in the face as he truly felt stunned at the charity that he was being offered.

"I can't accept this! Please, I thank you for your offer but for this much-!"

Shokuhou Misaki though was having none of it as she grabbed Kamijou's hand and pressed the two 10,000 Yen bills into his hand. Kamijou looked stunned however Shokuhou clasped her hands around the boy's as he went somewhat red as she looked up towards him with that same smile on her face.

"I insist. Please take it. I may not have said so before, but I think that at the very least, friends help each other out in times of financial strife. That's what I was taught after all."

Shokuhou said those words but it was clear that Kamijou did not understand any of it as Shokuhou let go of Kamijou and walked past him, towards the doors of the exit of the store.

She had done something that she at least had felt that she had needed to do.

A small act of charity, from one friend to another who did not realise their friendship.

She didn't need a reason.

After all, it was the result of what the boy had gifted her with, being given back to him in a way that he did not realise.

And the satisfying feeling that was within her seemed to make it all the worthwhile.

But this story had yet to finish.

A hand grabbed her own and she turned, seeing that Kamijou was looking at her with a frantic expression that seemed to suggest that he at least was not giving up without a fight. Why was he so noble and such a gentlemen in these times only?!

Shokuhou wanted to say something however Kamijou pointed towards the counter with a somewhat sheepish grin.

"Ah, well….I have to thank you somehow right? It's your money that I'm using so I feel bad. But do you want something to eat? I don't mind paying."

He must have realised that the words 'with your money' had to be at the end of the sentence, causing the boy to be rather flustered. He was trying to be noble but it was in the worst way, causing the girl that was on the receiving end of his embarrassment to laugh out loud.

Kamijou looked at her surprised as she walked towards him, pointing towards something that was almost in front of them as Kamijou looked towards it and back towards her.

"That?"

"Unless you have any objection ability?"

Kamijou shook his head as he practically leaped through the air, Shokuhou by his side as he picked up exactly what Shokuhou had wanted in the very first place.

The éclair sat in the tray as Kamijou put it into a paper bag and handed it towards Shokuhou, the girl nodding in thanks as she held it by her side.

"I-Is that it? I mean, if there is anything else?"

"Hm…" Shokuhou realised her selfishness as she considered the thought however part of her truly felt that these emotions that had been stirred up inside of her had to be satisfied in some way. It might be something only she wanted but at the very least, it was something that she found worth in.

Because now that those moments were gone, she truly had determined their worth to her.

"You don't mind if I shop with you do you? I might not look it but I am somewhat interested in cuisine ability." She gave a lie for the sake of convenience but it was the response that was given that made her smile even more.

"R-really!? Of course then!"

Kamijou seemed to be happy to comply as Shokuhou directed him towards the place where the food was as he walked towards it, looking back towards her though with an expression that seemed to suggest that there was something on his mind.

"Is there a problem ability?"

Shokuhou asked her question with a fraction of nervousness behind it as Kamijou merely opened his mouth, closed it upon thinking better however merely shook his head and addressed the issue fully.

"Are you really in middle school?"

Shokuhou blinked and looked down at what she was wearing, seeing her Tokiwadai uniform she was still in and the large breasts that it covered before she let out a cheery laugh once again, before shaking her head and giving a seductive wink.

"I'll leave that up to your imagination. So, what is for dinner sensei?" She asked as the boy seemed to realise that the ice breaker would start something that would occupy them until they were done with their shopping.

A kind stranger and someone complying with their strange request.

That was surely what Kamijou Touma saw of Shokuhou Misaki and himself now.

But she didn't care.

She had wanted something like this for so long and it was in front of her right now. Even though this memory of her would be erased for him, it would last deeply in the mind of the girl experiencing it now.

She didn't need a reason to enjoy it. She didn't need a reason to be happy now.

The only thing she knew was that she was enjoying it. And she was happy.

With a true friend.

And just like the éclair that had been purchased for her in hand, it contained an alluring sweetness that would draw her in no matter how many times she tried to turn away and escape.

Always.

* * *

**So how did you like it?**

**This second part of Misaki's one shots are something that I really like to write about. As you can probably tell, the theme of this was 'reason'.**

**At the beginning, we have the challenge from Mikoto. While Shokuhou addresses it in her own way to match the thinking of the clique, in their end she always had this challenging question that she asked long ago. And thus we reached this stage.**

**As Mental Out, finding out the 'reason' for things must be somewhat of a relief for her so not knowing why something happens or why people think as they do is surely something that is worrying for her as a whole. So when addressing it here, I simply had Touma think of a way to dispel her thoughts while at the same time giving her an answer that fits with 'friendship needs a reason', which was his first response.**

**His second response though dispelled her thoughts simply because reasons like that don't exist. When you get down to it and try to think of such a reason, it can be applied everywhere. Touma doesn't consider his relationships to be one where 'I'm friends with you because I saved you' but rather 'I met you, saved you and then what happened after that is of no concern'. He might not have put too much thought into it but somehow that was the correct answer in the end for him and his character.**

**But I also gave Misaki some closure with the end shopping scene and the fact that she was given an éclair from the person that complained about it originally.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please.**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**Misaki decided that she did have an obligation to help out Touma financially. That definitely means that she cares that much about him, wouldn't you agree?**

**And Merry Christmas and I hope you have a Happy New Year! See you in 2016 some time!**

**Mr Question Mark out for 2015!**


	18. The Dream II

**For those that were wondering for the reason why I repeated one of the previous one shots, I guess another reason for it was because the next request wanted something that was a repeat of such, although a different one!**

**This seems like a request simply because of the wording that was in the review so I'll end up sticking with what I have for now and for the moment. And a little note towards Agent Nine, your 'note here' (if you go through the reviews, you should be able to see it) is something that I'm considering doing for you however as a whole but I want to make sure that I can get through what other people want as well. We'll see how things go as I might end up writing it as an 'original' if I so desire.**

**But whatever, just something to take note of.**

**But this story is a fulfilment of a request (if you have not realised such already) and comes from Xcalated who said:**

That was a pretty nice chapter and I loved the introspection of Saten. You displayed her character very well and gave us some great insight to her feelings.

The whole dream sequence was great and I thought you pulled it off pretty well. I thought that the idea that the person(i.e. Touma) in your dreams is based on the actual person was pretty cool so that the interactions you have with him in a dream meant it was just as genuine as talking to the real person. Makes me wonder if everyone that goes through that dream gets an experience just like Saten and the endings seems like it hints that it does. Makes me wonder why the best-selling dream for females has Kamijou Touma in it ;). The comedic moments involving the Kami-yan disease are always my favorite.

Would definitely like to see a Part 2 of the dream. Whether it be a continuation of Saten or another character experiencing the dream, I'd gladly read it.

**Well here it is, served up and ready to go! I hope that you enjoy it for what it's worth and don't get too confused about what is going on here!**

**Before we begin though, I'd like to thank three people.**

**The first is naturally my beta reader PokeRescue18. Without his help, I think that these would be a lot less enjoyable due to errors so I want you to simply enjoy what it is that he does here.**

**The second is you, the reader. Of course you need thanks! Without you, I think that I would have stopped this a long time ago so I hope that you realise that as a whole, your contribution to this is extremely wanted and admired.**

**And finally, a special mention to Xcalated! This was something that came from you, who wanted another 'episode' (is what I should call them?) of this so here we are! I hope that for the most part, you guys enjoy.**

**I'm just hoping that you guys try and guess who the character that is going to be at the centre is before reading the story.**

**And Happy New Year for 2016! I hope that this one is just as eventful as the last one and you look forward to what comes next. I wish you all the best in your future and hope that you look forward to what comes for these one-shots and ACUL0. On a side note, I've already finished the chapter but am unsure about whether to upload it or not because it'll be a long time before I choose to update again. But we'll see what people want….**

**And from me:**

**Enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

Looking Intently with One's Eyes Closed. _Memory_Division._

Despite having her main body resting in a bed in the hospital where a certain frog faced doctor worked, Misaka #10032, or more commonly known as Misaka Imouto stood rather confused (but it was not shown on her expressionless face) as she looked at her reflection that was staring back at her with expressionless eyes.

She tilted her head to show that she truly did not understand what had happened to her as she looked down at the clothes she was wearing, noting that there was a lack of weight on her head due to the fact that her military goggles were gone.

The casual clothes seemed to fit around her body in a way that she had never really felt, after all she usually only wore were the Tokiwadai Middle School uniform and she rarely wore casual clothes on a normal basis. But if she were to use words to describe them, Misaka Imouto truly felt as though the clothes she was wearing could be deemed as 'adequately comfortable'.

Her skirt was short, meeting up to a place above her knees but the chill of the air did not meet her skin because of the stockings that covered those very legs. They were black and fit quite nicely, matching the colour of her shoes that she wore right now.

Misaka Imouto touched her top, seeing that the soft fabric she was wearing on her upper half was that of a light blue shirt, covered by a red jacket that she looked at in the mirror that was the shop window to get a better look at what she was wearing. They were rather taut against her skin however she weighed the function over their aesthetic value and deemed them 'adequately comfortable'.

Upon feeling satisfied at observing herself, Misaka Imouto turned around and looked at the bustle of Academy City that was in front of her.

Only she knew that it wasn't real.

She had been hospitalised due to the events that had happened during the Daihaseisai, meaning that unlike the other Misaka clones that were outside and having fun, Misaka Imouto was constricted to bedrest due to the events that had caused her to be placed in such conditions.

Personally, she felt fine. However doctor's orders were doctor's orders and due to the influence of the Experiment, she felt she needed to follow them exactly.

But that didn't mean she had to enjoy it though.

This was a thought that seemed to be shared not only by her but also her attending nurse, a young woman that seemed to have a bad habit of speaking aloud when it came towards the conditions of patients. Misaka Imouto was not one to comment on one's verbal tics but she truly felt that if someone had a broken leg or worse, mumbling such in front of them was probably not a good idea.

Said attending nurse though had given her something that had allowed Misaka Imouto to be placed in such a situation as this one.

While it seemed as though she had purchased said item herself, the card from the Indian Poker that she gave Misaka Imouto was something that was to 'wash her worries away', using her words.

Misaka Imouto had a vague understanding of what the Indian Poker cards were and how they worked meaning that she at the very least understood that this was a dream. She realised that none of this was real however indeed wondered at how much time and detail had to be put into making this entire scenery seem so refined.

The bustle and people moving through Academy City truly seemed endless to someone that had only been shown the worth of the world recently and to an extent Misaka Imouto realised that the small gaps where she could fit in were in moments that were too few and far between.

She still wanted to make sure that she found the moments where she could fit in.

After all, she had lived this long to make sure that she could do that.

And in a way, whatever this 'dream' was that was to 'wash her worries away', Misaka Imouto at the very least understood that it might be something that she needed right now to ease her lonely soul.

Still, why was she here? And dressed in casual clothes?

The answer came quickly.

"M-Misaka Imouto! Sorry! Sorry I'm late!"

A familiar voice echoed through the air as Misaka Imouto turned and looked towards the approaching figure.

Like her, he was wearing casual clothes as well, thick jumper with casual slacks and an undershirt that matched the season. He panted heavily in front of her as Misaka Imouto watched him and his spiky hair with confusion first as she merely voiced her own thoughts out loud.

This was a dream right? So…

"What are you doing here? asks Misaka wondering at the meaning of your presence."

Kamijou Touma held up a finger as he tried to catch his breath before looking at her with a frown that suggested that he was somewhat upset that she had asked that question in the first place.

"What!? A-Aren't you the one that asked me to come here? You said that you needed some heavy lifting done and you gave me call to come and help you. Don't tell me you forgot?" Kamijou's voice came out from pants as he stood up properly and faced her while Misaka Imouto merely rose an eyebrow, not changing expression.

"Heavy lifting? questions Misaka. Misaka is currently hospitalised and this is a dream meaning that there is no context for your words replies Misaka. Is this some sort of forced way of entering a situation? enquires Misaka while looking around to determine if this is indeed the nature of the setting." Misaka Imouto chained those words together as she did as she said, looking around herself in order to determine if anything else was going to happen around her.

She had wondered what the basis of the dream that was to 'wash her worries away' was going to be however she never expected it to be focused on Kamijou in front of her. Unless there was some other factor, which Misaka Imouto likely deduced, that was going to be at the centre, it was probably the job of the dreamer to seek it out.

"Ah? What? Setting? Are you feeling OK there Misaka Imouto?" Kamijou gave a concerned look as he approached her giving a look towards her clothed form. "Hang on just a minute."

His next action was sudden as he placed his own hand on Misaka Imouto's forehead, something that he did copied with his other hand as he placed it on his forehead as well. His eyes were closed and as a result did not see the sudden surprised expression on Misaka Imouto's face as she immediately backed away from the contact.

Kamijou opened his eyes however the same concerned expression was on his face, something that seemed to have grown because of the way that Misaka Imouto had acted.

"Do you have a fever or something? Honestly, with those drugs that you needed to extend your life span, do you really have time to be hanging out outside? A-And those clothes that you're wearing seem to be awfully, um…tight."

Kamijou made that comment as Misaka Imouto immediately looked down at her clothes, staring at how the boy was right.

The way that her clothes on her upper half were placed had the effect of bringing out the curves that she had gained from the Original. Furthermore the way that her stockings were placed, now that she had moved, made her realise that movement inside them was hardly something that was to be done often. The stockings seemed as though they were purely for activities that lacked movement and if she were to move a lot, she would need to take them off lest they rip.

Yet those stockings pressed against her shapely legs in an almost alluring way that, to the untrained eye, accented their shape in a natural way. The clothes she was wearing were perfect for her and Misaka Imouto, slowly understanding the nature of what she was wearing came to one conclusion.

Judging from the evidence, the boy had said that he was here because of her.

And from what she was wearing, it was clear that Misaka Imouto was dressed to make an impression.

Those two facts as well as the nature and forced position of the setting only made Misaka Imouto realise one thing.

Her calm exterior immediately was at odds with the rampant nature of her interior; a fast beating heart and chemical reactions in the brain that one would have associated with one emotion.

Excitement.

This was…the rumoured 'date'….was it not?!

Misaka Imouto though felt the need to address one single point in this space that she found herself in and the person that she was facing.

"These clothes were handpicked by Misaka so Misaka wants your personal opinion on them responds Misaka while attempting to grind a response out of you." replied Misaka Imouto as she took a step forward, giving the boy a closer look at the eyeful of the clothes she was wearing.

"Ah? Um…" Kamijou gave that response now that he got a better look, the colour red coming to his cheeks as he slowly averted his eyes however as if naturally being drawn towards the beauty that Misaka Imouto was radiating, it was a poor attempt as Kamijou gave her the once over with his eyes, although more than once.

"Y-You look fine."

"Is that all? asks Misaka again. Any comments that you would like to make? To think that you are so ungrateful after Misaka especially chose this outfit for you suggests Misaka." Misaka Imouto gave the question once more as she heard the boy gulp and struggle to avert his eyes and maintain a natural manner.

"F-For me?!" Kamijou let out that surprised shout as he immediately looked down towards the said clothes as he stared at the girl in front of him for a prolonged moment before catching himself and clearing his throat.

"W-Well if that's the case, I would be amiss if I hid what I was thinking. You look stunning."

It seemed as though the words came naturally out of the boy's mouth, although with a hint of embarrassment as he spoke his mind, something that was matched by Misaka Imouto as she maintained her cool expression. Again though, the interior she had was at odds with it, the clone feeling a heat rising through her body due to the simple effect of those words.

"Th-Thank you replies Misaka honestly. Misaka is glad that you like them however a question fills her mind says Misaka." Misaka Imouto though knew her place and felt that it had to be established so that she would not lose herself in the illusion that this was.

"Yes? What is it?" Kamijou...no 'Kamijou' asked.

"Who are you? questions Misaka. This is a dream so do you really think that Misaka will let you get away with tarnishing the name of her Saviour? asks Misaka."

Misaka Imouto stepped forward. And that was all she needed.

This was a dream.

A space created with her own mind and thus obeying the rules that were created by Misaka Imouto solely.

The world around her was similar to a blank canvas, the Indian Poker card providing the template that was to be filled by Misaka Imouto herself and her dreaming mind. Which meant that, as the artist, she could fill it with whatever colours she wanted.

And one of those 'colours' was the handgun that was placed into the gut of the 'thing' that was standing in front of her.

The 'thing' looked at it with a surprised expression however it changed in an instant as the 'thing' rose its hands in a position that suggested that 'it' meant no harm.

"Whoa! Th-This may be a dream however there are some limits towards what happens here!"

The 'thing' spoke in a surprised voice and Misaka Imouto felt the object in her hand immediately crumble into dust as she looked at it with surprise however the training forged within her told her that there were more ways to kill a 'thing' with humanoid appearance than with a point blank shot with a .22 calibre handgun.

Misaka Imouto kept that very thought in the front of her mind as she spoke once more.

"Explain commands Misaka."

"O-Of course. You see, this," The 'thing' indicated around itself. "Is nothing more than a dream. The Indian Poker card that you borrowed? It has had this 'Academy City' implanted into it and a singular experience uploaded onto it as a 'file' to be felt and received by you. And this of course is the experience with the person in front of you now."

The 'thing' offered a relevant explanation but it was clear that Misaka Imouto was far from happy.

"Why _his _face? questions Misaka. He has had nothing to do with this dream so why are you using his face? And who are you? adds Misaka."

"I am not the boy known as 'Kamijou Touma'. Instead, the file that you are experiencing right now in this Indian Poker card is simply using a collage of observations and fragments that have been put together to form this 'boy' in the dream. My responses, speech patterns and actions all have been 'programmed' to match that of Kamijou Touma. The person speaking to you, right in this instant might be somewhat of a dream AI to lay out the ground rules to those that ask for them."

'Kamijou Touma' or rather the AI master of the dream 'file' that Misaka Imouto had entered explained itself while Misaka Imouto merely frowned.

The 'thing' in front of her was something that had been formed using fragments and observations. Right now, the 'thing', the AI that she was conversing with was like a GPS offering directions and laying out the rules, an action based on Kamijou's real life personality.

She understood all of that however she still felt as though something was unanswered.

"What is this experience then? asks Misaka. Misaka finds it hard to believe that 'he' would enter something like this of his own free will says Misaka honestly."

'Kamijou' though only smiled as he gave a foolish grin that, now that she knew was not something that was coming from Kamijou directly, burned painfully into Misaka Imouto's soul.

"You already know that. Please note that there are some limits to what you can do here though. 'My' function as rule layer and 'world builder' then has been completed. Don't think too hard about this, little Dreamer. You'll ruin the fun."

"But-"

"H-Huh? What happened?"

Kamijou Touma spoke and it was the way that it was said, the mannerisms and look of pure and utter lack of comprehension of his face that told Misaka Imouto she had extracted everything that she was going to get for the moment.

"Misaka Imouto…? Ah! Right! You asked me something right? D—Did I just black out? S-Someone didn't steal my kidneys while it happened right?"

The utter lack of common sense that was in his statement seemed to further make Misaka #10032 understand the true person that was standing in front of her as he slowly lifted his shirt and checked his sides to look for any marks that suggested that his kidneys were stolen.

That in turn only hammered into her mind what this was.

A date.

With Kamijou Touma, probably the closest thing that she was going to have in terms of a good time now that she was stuck in bed.

And she felt as though the nurse had been right.

She truly did feel as though her worries were slowly washing themselves away.

"No one stole your kidneys reports Misaka while wondering how in the world you can up with such a thought."

"Hey. I swear someone's been watching me for the past few weeks and it's not even funny. Having a secret stalker might sound like fun and games but it's leaning towards a creepy yandere tendency when it's in the middle of the night. Keep your kuudere character Misaka Imouto. It matches you much better."

"Are you suggesting that you would like to see a yandere Misaka at some point? asks Misaka seriously."

"N-No! With the way that your thought processes are all connected, I get the feeling as though anyone you guys get feelings for will eventually end up facing an army of 10,000 yanderes! There's a limit to clichés!" Kamijou paled as he slowly looked around as if anticipating something to happen with his misfortune as Misaka Imouto merely sighed.

She would gain nothing standing around with an aimless expression.

This was the canvas.

And she was the artist.

Meaning that she wanted to create a masterpiece, with the brush that was Kamijou Touma.

So she did the one thing to start that very process off.

She lightly grabbed his hand as the boy turned towards her with a look that suggested that he had been expecting her to do that very thing in order to get back to the business that she had returned to.

"So?" he asked his one question, never missing a beat when it came towards the true longing and desires of the girl that had grabbed him. "Where are we going?"

"The beach."

"I think that that's a bit too far."

Kamijou replied with a chuckle as it seemed as though the boy thought she was joking somewhat however with the blank expression on Misaka Imouto's face it was hard to tell what she was thinking.

However the mere words that he had given her were a massive let down as if she had been struck in the face. Part of her, she did not know which part, had truly wanted to visit the beach despite the selfishness of the wish that was inside her.

She had somewhat expected the entire scenery to transform into the beach the moment she had said that however the Academy City surrounding her seemed to want to cling onto its metal form for as long as it could manage.

As the part that felt that massive let down and scar inside her ripping apart was separate from her, Misaka Imouto knew that she had nothing to do with that emotion. But it still hurt no matter what the person in front of her said.

With that confusion in her mind though, she gathered her thoughts and spoke once more.

This was beginning.

"Misaka was joking says Misaka as an excuse. Instead, there is somewhere else that Misaka wants to go tells Misaka with eagerness."

"…Somehow I feel as though you just raised a misfortune flag for me."

This was the beginning of the date simulation file dream between Misaka Imouto and Kamijou Touma.

* * *

The laser shot through the air and made an impact with the back of the retreating enemy. They fell to the ground with a shout of surprise as the gun that was in their hand clattered to the ground as they slumped and stayed there, unmoving and still.

"[Player 16 has been shot fatally for the third time and is out of the game. Current score, 21 to 0]."

"Who are these people?!"

"Who is this legendary team?"

"We can't beat them!"

"Just shoot widely!"

"I've spotted one! Get him!"

"Such misfortune!"

Kamijou Touma ran through the darkness without really knowing where he was going, shooting behind him with the laser gun that he had, the green beam shooting backwards where it hit a wall however not another enemy that was there.

Misaka Imouto though merely watched him do so through the military goggles that she had purchased as she looked through them, feeling the familiar weight that accompanied them on her head. She looked through the scope that had come with the laser gun set that she was using, seeing the closest enemy that was heading towards Kamijou in order to intercept him.

He too wore military goggles, equipped with night vision of course to match the terrain that they were in. He saw Kamijou heading towards him as he rose his own laser gun towards Kamijou heading towards him without wiser, Kamijou not wearing those goggles.

After all, it had been early in the game when Kamijou had thrown those goggles towards an advancing enemy that he had lost them. But in honesty, despite the shouting that he had done back then, the fact that the laser that had been shot towards him was absorbed by the thrown goggles was somewhat amazing.

Still Misaka Imouto watched through her scope and narrowed her eyes.

"Location of enemy confirmed, bluntly states Misaka. Taking the shot now reports Misaka."

Misaka Imouto's words were spoken out loud as if to remind herself of the fact that it had been a while since she had done this in a serious context. The Experiment was over however the knowledge that filled her mind was hardly something that was going to disappear by tomorrow at the very least.

Misaka Imouto wasted no time though, pulling the trigger of the laser gun that she held as the barrel burst with a brilliant green light, the laser travelling through the air so fast that it was barely registered by those that had seen the green burst from the barrel.

It sailed through the air, striking the boy that had tried to intercept Kamijou in the chest as he cried out, falling to the ground where he lay there, still and unmoving.

And once again, that electronic voice echoed through the space that they were in as Misaka Imouto saw through her goggles that Kamijou passed over the boy without realising that he was there before smashing his nose into the wall of the maze that he was in.

"[Player 2 has been shot fatally for the third time and is out of the game. Current score, 22 to 0]."

"Where are they!?"

"D-Damn monsters!"

"Don't lose yourself to the pressure guys! Stay calm! Calm!"

The shouts of the enemy echoed through the air however Misaka Imouto paid no mind as she rolled off the wall of the maze that she was on, zipping through it as she recalled when she had last seen Kamijou.

This was of course the location that she had wanted to go for a while although had never had the chance to.

The laser tag arena in Academy City's District 6 was somewhere that she had been dying to go after learning of the realistic technology that Academy City had used in the creation of the game that was to be played there.

While it seemed as though the game was similarly played in the outside world, in that one had to aim towards the plates that were worn on the chest and back with the lasers used being harmless. This was not the case in Academy City.

Namely, the difference was in the fact that the lasers that were used here were in fact actual lasers. While in the outside world infrared light was used, the light that Academy City used was the real deal, light that with a stimulus of electromagnetic radiation served to shoot what was seen by movies and the like towards the opponent.

The chest and back plate then had the function of absorbing said light, registering the location of where the laser had come from and the person that had been there at the time before coming to a conclusion towards who had shot the plate and thus the division of points that were to be made for the teams.

Naturally though, there were a number of moral questions around such a sport in the use of actual lasers, particularly those of the effects on eyesight. Since lasers had the ability to cause either temporary or permanent blindness, the sport as a whole was seen to be rather dangerous.

However, as with Academy City technology, whenever there was a problem, there was a solution. In this case, to avoid having blindness in individuals, the military goggles were needed to protect one's eyes not only from the lasers should they be aimed there by accident or on purpose but also served to absorb the light and prevent the laser from entering anywhere near the retinas.

It was the perfect safety device and since the only indoor setting of the laser tag battles was night, wearing the goggles was a must regardless of whether one needed them to protect the eyes or use their night vision functionality to see in the first place. While artificial fog served to sometimes give a physical appearance to the lasers, the sport itself was an exhilaration and thus, one of the reasons why Misaka Imouto had wanted to try it out in the first place.

However the safety and the fun of the sport didn't mean much when her partner was an idiot that had thrown his safety device towards the enemy.

Despite that though, the fact that the person that she was partnered with was nothing more than a collage of the real Kamijou Touma through observations and fragments, Misaka Imouto could still not prevent herself from feeling an immense amount of worry.

Whether it be in the final minutes of the Experiment or the fact that right now he was running for his life, Misaka Imouto could still not prevent herself from feeling her heart rate accelerate due to the worry that she felt for the boy himself.

She had never felt this way before about anyone, neither during the Experiment or after and only in the presence of the boy did she feel this massive concern fill her when it came towards his safety. It drove her more than her own personal goals and filled her with a strong kind of energy that was neither good nor bad.

But she knew one thing.

She knew that the feeling inside of her, the immense worry was enough to cause her entire body to break out in a cold sweat from the anxiety she was feeling.

But she knew that the moment that she realised that the boy was safe, she would feel elation and happiness that wanted to make her leap for joy.

As a Sister and someone that had been born to die, it was strange for her to feel these types of emotions, let alone want to express them to another person. However Kamijou Touma had saved her and given her the chance to feel those uncertain feelings within her that she did not know how to respond to.

She owed him her life.

And whether he was a collage or not, Misaka Imouto at least felt as though she had the responsibility to ensure that he was safe.

She raced through the maze, laser gun in hand as she moved around the corner, hearing the shouts and using her magnetism to allow her to climb the wall next to her although it was more her own ability that allowed her to do so easily.

Her worry was simple: that the boy was not wearing the safety goggles that had been given to him.

Although he was making a gigantic fuss right now, the fact was that he had _hit a wall almost moments before_. Given that he was now not wearing his goggles that were the safety protection, why had he hit the wall? Was it because he couldn't see it?

If that was the case, then why could he not see it?

Was it because it was too dark?

Or because of the fact that it had reached the stage where _he simply could not see_?

Misaka Imouto used the training that had been provided to her by the Testament that gave her the necessary information to perform those military techniques as she fired after looking through the scope once more towards another opponent that fell backwards and hit the ground, that mechanical voice appearing over the intercom in the arena.

"[Player 25 has been shot fatally for the third time and is out of the game. Current score, 23 to 0]."

"Wh-Where are they!?"

"If we don't take out at least one of them, I'm going to commit seppuku from embarrassment!" **[1]**

Misaka Imouto ignored their claims as she leaped from the wall of the maze onto the next one, spotting a head of spiky hair tripping over one of the stairs that led towards the lower level of the multi-level arena. He tumbled down them, pulling the trigger of the laser gun in his grip from the surprise of the fall as he landed on the lower level with a dazed expression on his face.

"[Player 3 has been shot fatally for the third time and is out of the game. Current score, 24 to 0]."

"How did that happeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!?"

An exasperated shout filled the air as Misaka Imouto leaped through the air and landed next to the boy as he jumped at the sound of her hitting the ground.

"M-Misaka Imouto?"

The fact that he looked directly at her and the faint glow of her night goggles was enough of a relief for the worried clone as she took drastic actions towards making sure that he was perfectly fine on this battlefield.

"We don't have time to waste states Misaka while taking the initiative. To get you out of harm's way, drastic action needs to be taken explains Misaka without waiting for your permission." Misaka Imouto's words were blunt, leaving Kamijou rather confused as he sat in front of her.

"Wait, wait, what do you mean permiss-!?" Kamijou's face went red as Misaka Imouto pressed her entire body down onto him as she held the laser gun above her, using his head as a support for the gun itself.

"Stay still. The enemy has appeared gives Misaka towards you plainly."

"H-Hang on there! There are still a number of things wrong with this! Ah, girls are so soft…." Kamijou mumbled the last thing in a soft voice so that Misaka Imouto could not hear him however the position that they were in was hardly something that one could state as 'normal'.

With Kamijou lying face up, Misaka Imouto was on top of him face down, her body placed on Kamijou's almost perfectly parallel if not for the fact that she was currently using his head as a rest for the laser gun in her grip. She narrowed her eyes, looking through the scope and shifted her body slightly, rubbing parts of her body against Kamijou's as he violently jerked in order to prevent himself from screaming out despite his red face.

"W-Wait just a minute there Misaka Imouto! You can't throw in a service scene during a game of laser tag! G-Get off me!"

"Stay still, spits out Misaka while getting into position. This will only take a moment reports Misaka."

Misaka Imouto wasted no time, lining the nervous enemy in her sights and narrowing her eye only slightly as she tensed with her finger on the trigger.

"By the way what do you mean by service? asks Misaka."

Misaka Imouto gave her question plain as day as she pulled the trigger, the laser shooting through the air where it hit the back of the enemy as the laser was absorbed. The back of the protective gear lit up with a red light so bright that Misaka Imouto had to avert her eyes away from it but the results were clear.

There was a scream of defeat at the sound of someone collapsing as silence ruled, only for an instant.

Suddenly, without warning all of the lights in the arena turned on, leaving Misaka Imouto blinded for an instant as her eyes adjusted to the new lighting, only to see that Kamijou underneath her was red in the face and trying his best not to move in the comprising situation that he was in.

"[Player 16 has been shot fatally for the third time and is out of the game. Current score, 25 to 0. End of game. The winners are Team 'Operation: Date'.]"

The intercom let out that message through the arena as Misaka Imouto got off from the top of Kamijou as he slowly sat up, looking towards the girl as she placed the laser gun on the ground and removed her goggles from her face.

She turned and looked at the stairs that Kamijou had fallen down only moments before, before turning towards Kamijou as she leaned in towards him.

"Are you alright? questions Misaka while holding up her fingers. Can you tell how many fingers I am holding up? asks Misaka while inquiring with worry about your eyesight." Misaka Imouto held up four fingers as Kamijou frowned while looking at them.

"Eyesight? It's fine and you're holding 4 fingers. Why do you ask?" Kamijou questioned Misaka Imouto's line of inquiry however she let out a sigh of relief as she moved her gun and sat on the stair that Kamijou had fallen down.

"S-Still, you are pretty amazing there. I didn't think you would manage to get the kills for everyone here. All I really did was run around and stuff…" Kamijou made a note towards his own uselessness as Misaka Imouto nodded in response.

"Indeed bluntly states Misaka. The function of 'bait' you fulfilled perfectly states master strategist Misaka."

"….I should have expected such but you could have at least told me that you expected me to run around screaming my lungs out! I had no idea where you were half the time!"

"Real battles do not need you to know where your allies are. The only thing one needs to know in a battle is the location of the enemy gives Misaka towards you. That…is the basics of any battle one must face solemnly says Misaka."

Misaka Imouto hung her head as she spoke, looking at the ground as she saw her own hands that had held the gun and fired it without mercy. Indeed, this was nothing but a mock battle with laser guns and the like however there had been one thing that Misaka Imouto had felt when she had held and fired that gun.

She felt at home.

It was a feeling like the piece of the puzzle had been perfectly placed, only for the next one to be fit in. And in this case, the only pieces that were needed were to align the barrel and pull the trigger for the shot.

Misaka Imouto….no, Misaka #10032 as well as the other Sisters had been designed for one purpose and one purpose only. A mass extinction at the hands of Accelerator in order to allow him the chance to reach the fabled Level 6.

But that had ended and there was nothing that was left for the Sisters now except to live and face the world in its glory that they had left behind while residing in the darkness.

But…

There was one thing that Misaka #10032 felt once she took the time to relax now that the conflict was over.

"…Misaka feels as though nothing has changed reports Misaka towards you."

Misaka #10032, the former soldier, gave her words towards the person in front of her. She realised that he was a part of the dream, a fragment that was created and placed in situations due to her own dreaming mind painting on the canvas that had been left for her. This was her space and she ruled it however with the 'date' that she was made to endure, there was one thing that she had noticed between her and this boy, the collage of the real thing.

They were both copies.

They were both borrowed bodies of the real article, having a borrowed mind that was taken from the original.

There were similarities between them and they currently occupied Misaka #10032's own mind space, allowing that Misaka to speak her mind in such an environment.

After all, there was no one to judge her here, no one to place her in a position where they would disagree with her and no one to look at her and mock her for her own hesitation now that she had the world in her hands.

There was surely going to be someone to comfort her however what that former soldier wanted was not someone to comfort her, but rather someone to listen and absorb everything, not to tell anyone and keep these internal demons that Misaka #10032 had hidden within her borrowed heart a secret.

"Misaka feels at home holding this gun confesses Misaka." There was not going to be the chance for someone to explain what she was saying now towards another person. After all, this was going to be something that would only be between her and the collage of the Saviour.

There was no way for anyone to hear what she was saying and there was no way for Misaka #10032 to have anyone judge her for what she was feeling within her now as she expressed it openly towards the thing that was merely a part of her own dream. It was a fragment of her; given life only because she was dreaming so it was no question that this fact caused the rational soldier to voice her own opinions.

She was, essentially, speaking to herself after all. Her own mind.

"Misaka felt as though every time Misaka pulled the trigger, Misaka felt complete confesses Misaka. Misaka's function was to merely die in the Experiment but now that it is over, Misaka truly wonders if something such as 'life' can be granted to an existence such as Misaka. The gun and the action of pulling the trigger made Misaka feel complete. With such a realisation in Misaka's mind can Misaka ever have something that resembles a normal life, an existence, when Misaka feels at home with a gun in Misaka's hand? postulates Misaka."

It was an action that was completely subconscious however Misaka #10032 stroked her hand against the cold metal of the laser gun. However to her right now, there was a strong familiarity in the way that the gun was made.

Its weight, colour, manufacturer and even the subtle way that the fired laser shifted 0.585 degrees to the left when it shot through the air were all things that she had noticed.

Not because she was observant.

But because she had been trained to notice those things when it mattered in cases of life and death.

"Misaka feels as though the darkness beckoned Misaka towards its depths. Yet when Misaka feels at home with a gun, what else can Misaka do but accept what that calling is? asks Misaka. Misaka does not want to fight. But right now, Misaka realises that there is something worth fighting for. Does existence and conflict work hand in hand to reach an end conclusion? questions Misaka. If that is the case, then is it wrong for Misaka to fight for what she wants with a gun in her hand? asks Misaka."

Misaka #10032 let the gun drop to her side, refusing to touch it as if it were an infectious item that would poison her the moment contact was made.

"Misaka does not know confesses Misaka. Misaka wants to fight for what is important to Misaka. However to do so means to pick up the gun that beckons Misaka towards where Misaka once belonged. Misaka does not want to die says Misaka. But….Misaka does not know what it means to live either reports Misaka honestly."

As if realising the nature of the words that were coming from her mouth, Misaka #10032 pulled her knees towards her and cuddled them with her hands as she looked at them.

"Misaka's hands have not been dirtied. But Misaka's hands are a soldier's hands says Misaka. The world is full of options but the only options for Misaka are those that were implanted into Misaka via the Testament. Misaka did not choose the knowledge and can only use it. It is not wrong to do so and Misaka knows that people, existence, aims towards doing things that one excels at. A carpenter will build, a potter will create and a hero will save. But what about an existence that is made towards doing none of those things? Misaka was born for a conflict but now that that is over, what else is there for Misaka to do? asks Misaka."

She moved her hands slowly, as if rubbing those dirtied hands together in order to try and wipe off the identity of who she was however no matter what she did, she knew that it would always stick.

"Misaka is thankful for opportunities that are given to Misaka, gives Misaka honestly. But in the world of opportunities, the risk of Misaka not having what is needed to survive is high. For what Misaka is, survival is key and needs to occur. Misaka realises this but there is no option for Misaka to survive now that she is on her own without the proper training. Misaka….is scared."

Misaka #10032, let out those words as she felt as though the accumulation of everything that she had felt regarding herself had built up towards those words themselves.

"Misaka is scared realises Misaka. Misaka does not intend to die but Misaka does not know what it means to live either. Misaka fears that now that Misaka's options are open, everything is closed because of her existence. After being saved, Misaka wants to live. But now….for Misaka there is nowhere left for Misaka to go says Misaka. Misaka cannot live because Misaka…is Misaka states Misaka in sadness."

An expression was on her face as she spoke however the eruption of emotion that she gave was something that only revealed just how scared Misaka #10032 was. As a soldier, she had nothing left. As an existence, she could not live because of who she was and there was nothing that she could about that very fact except lament on how she felt at home doing something that she was not needed to do.

Misaka #10032 realised though that she was being nothing but selfish. She had the Original to speak to about this matter however the small struggle that she and the other Sisters had was something that they knew they had to bear.

They had to survive, adapt and live on.

However for those existences that only knew how to die, there was nothing telling them how to live.

Misaka #10032 though let out a sigh as she selfishly let out her emotions. She had used this dream in order to allow her to 'wash her worries' away and in part that had been true. She had realised her faults, her demons and expressed them out loud towards herself. Her heart was laid bare and in front of her was the chance to look at it in seriousness and come to terms to what she was.

Expressing her lament surely helped her 'wash away her worries' and indeed, the purpose of the boy in front of her had been completed. After all, had he not met up with Misaka #10032 in order to do some 'heavy lifting'? In part, Misaka #10032 felt as though that task had been completed in that she felt somewhat at ease for what she had revealed.

It was not complete and she still felt that worry.

But still, it was something that she had to come to accept within herself.

"I think that you're wrong there. I think you're living just fine."

A voice in front of her made Misaka #10032, the former soldier freeze as she looked up towards the boy across from her that was sitting cross legged and tilting his head as he received everything that Misaka #10032 had given him.

After hearing those words from her own mouth, there was one thing that Kamijou Touma had done.

He rejected it all with a few words.

"What….did you say? asks Misaka in disbelief."

Misaka #10032 looked at the carefree expression on the boy's face however it did not change no matter how many times she tried to rethink the words that he had said.

This was her dream, her palette and she was the artist. There should have been no elements inside the dream that functioned against the wishes of the dreamer and thus, she was the master and in complete control of everything here.

Being denied was something that was impossible in the mind of the dreamer yet that very impossibility made itself known as Kamijou Touma rejected everything that she had said.

"You're worried about living because you've only had the capability to die? You're scared because you don't know what to do now that every single choice is open to you? That makes you alive, no more than so. It makes you a human that is simply scared to take that first step into the light."

Kamijou said those words as easily as Misaka #10032 had said hers, the girl watching the boy with an intense curiosity and hurt that she knew would never fade. This was her dream, her pain and yet the person in front of her had judged her for something that she did not want to be judged for.

"Are…you denying Misaka's thoughts? asks Misaka. Misaka truly feels the way that Misaka does so how can you-" She stood up in her defence but was cut off.

"You've lived in the shadows for too long Misaka Imouto," Kamijou responded not with a response that suggested that he was defending himself but rather aimed towards the very heart of the issue that was being faced. "It's just that the first step into the light seems a bit blinding for you as you are now."

"Misaka cannot accept that reports Misaka. Misaka felt the pull of the darkness when Misaka held the gun. Misaka is nothing but a soldier without a battlefield to return to. How can Misaka live in such a harsh environment? asks Misaka towards you. It isn't about optimism or hesitation. It's about-"

Misaka #10032, the former soldier stopped as she realised what was at the very heart of her words.

"You see? You realise it as well don't you? You said so yourself but those words seemed to have hit home. You're scared Misaka Imouto."

That was right.

It wasn't about optimism or hesitation. Right now, Misaka #10032…no the human that felt emotion Misaka Imouto, had pointed things out that truly scared her about the world itself that she had been born to die in.

But now that that role had been deemed redundant how could she live now?

"You felt the pull of the gun because of everything that you faced. The…Experiment was horrible but you survived Misaka Imouto. You and your Sisters. If you deny what the Experiment gave you then you have to deny one thing as well. And that is your life. And I'm not going to allow you to do that Misaka Imouto. Because your life means something."

Kamijou stood up and walked over towards her, placing himself next to her as he placed a hand onto her knee, stroking it lightly in comfort towards the wounded girl.

"You were born. You were given knowledge through technology. That knowledge will not fade but it's not going to serve towards representing a dark time in your life. It's going to represent the fact that you were born. People cannot have knowledge without being alive. And while the purpose of that information is gone now, that doesn't mean that there is nothing left to live for."

"But," Misaka Imouto trembled slightly, something that she would have likely only done in the presence of no one where she knew that she would not be seen as she turned towards the boy sitting next to her. "Misaka only knows how to die. Misaka cannot live because of what Misaka is states Misaka simply."

"And that is why it is important to live Misaka Imouto. There has to be more than just knowledge and its applications. Even you know that. You aren't defined by what you know. That is only a small part of you. You are defined by how you use what you know and how you work towards gaining new knowledge and experiences that you can use as well." Kamijou placed his hand on her knee where it rested.

"It's OK to be scared. You're right, that Experiment was messed up, cruel and put you and your Sisters in a place where you should never have had to be. But you are no longer fodder. You have the chance and the right to live. You can be hesitant, you can be optimistic but you need to know that you have the right to live. You can't throw that away for anything."

"Can that…be enough for Misaka's purpose? questions Misaka towards the adequacy of such a reason to live. Simply because Misaka has the right to live?" Misaka Imouto felt the warmth of the hand that touched her however the coldness of her words was in complete contrast.

"That's all you need. And Misaka Imouto, there is no one that can take that away from you. No matter what you think or what other people say, it is something that you hold in your hands that you can control." Kamijou took his hand off her knees and touched her hands rubbing them with a smile on his face.

"Your hands are not a soldier's hands. They are yours. How you use them is up to you but all you have to do is remember that the right to use them is up to you. It is scary yes. If you feel that though, it only shows that the will to live within you is strong."

"The will? asks Misaka."

"You want to live Misaka Imouto," Kamijou stood up and held out his hand towards her, something that she could only look at and admire how strong and steadfast it seemed in its outlook of life. "And that is why you are so scared. You are scared because you don't know what to do. You are scared because you want to do something but are unsure as to how to find it. And that is something that is unbelievably human. Besides, you said it yourself."

The boy grinned but Misaka Imouto could only look at him with confusion. How had what she had said resembled her own answer?

No, how was it that her own answer had been sleeping inside her the entire time without her realising it?

She had been scared and that was her own fear that she realised. But how had what she had said also been the answer to counter that fear?

"You said that you want to fight for what was important to you. But Misaka Imouto, you do not have do to that with a soldier's hands. The only hands that are going to be fighting to protect something that you want are yours. Not Misaka #10032, the former soldier. Not Misaka #10032, the clone. Not Misaka #10032, the Sister. But you, Misaka Imouto…the human."

Misaka Imouto felt her breath catch as she absorbed the words that were being said towards her. Yes, she was a soldier, a Sister and a clone. Those things were all part of her identity however for the purpose of living, for the purpose of moving forward, Kamijou said that those things were not needed.

She was Misaka Imouto and that was the only label that she needed.

Carpenters build, potters create and heroes save.

But at their heart, was that who they were? Seen in the eyes of others that was surely the case but in their own eyes, they were surely only one person and not defined but something that they did.

So how did that apply to Misaka Imouto?

Did she truly have the chance to live because she was human? Did she truly have the right to live because of such?

She had said it herself; she was scared. And more importantly, she had said that she had wanted to protect the things important to her. But she realised that she did not have to do such with the title of 'soldiers' or 'Sister'. She had to do so with the only label that she needed, Misaka Imouto.

That was an answer to her plight; however the beauty of it almost made Misaka Imouto stop in her tracks as she wanted to hear those words.

She saw the unwavering hand of salvation reach down and pull her upwards, Misaka Imouto blinking once as she was pulled up and in that one instant, the scenery changed.

She was no longer in the laser tag arena.

The waves beat against the sand as the wind blew the salty sea scent into her nose, tickling her nose and giving her a full view of the ocean in front of her as the sunset lingered over the horizon. It blazed brilliantly and Misaka Imouto paused for only an instant as she felt the hand that covered hers wrap tightly around her own.

"You said you wanted to visit the ocean right?"

Kamijou Touma grinned towards Misaka Imouto however the girl merely lost herself in the sight, captivated by its beauty before the voice of the boy next to her drew her attention, making her look towards him.

"Misaka Imouto. It's OK to be scared. But the thing is that there is one thing that you have to do for me."

"And that is? questions Misaka for further information."

"You need to take that first step forward, not as a soldier but as a human with the right to live…when you wake up. This is a dream after all."

There was a sort of melancholy in the boy's smile as Misaka Imouto truly looked shocked at his words and how he was fully self-aware about what it was that he was. It was like he was stating that this was a final goodbye and that they would never meet again given what he truly was.

"But Misaka needs guidance begs Misaka!" Misaka Imouto suddenly felt herself shout towards him in the sunset as she turned her gaze away from him. "Misaka still doesn't realise what it means to live! What happens if Misaka falters? What happens if Misaka cannot fulfil Misaka's-"

She stopped talking as the boy placed a finger onto her lips as she felt the sensation of his warm skin fill her.

"Then I will be there. I will always be there for you Misaka Imouto. No matter how many times you fall behind, no matter how many times you stumble, I will always be there to push you forward once more. You have my word. But I think that you don't need that." He grinned and he retracted his finger from her lips.

"Because you Misaka Imouto, are more human than you think. So live. Be brilliant and break that fear of yours into tiny pieces so you can know the illusion that it is. That is your task, Misaka Imouto. Do you choose to accept it?"

There was only one answer that that girl could give in the scenery that she was in right now.

It was not the one that she said to please the person in front of her. It was the one that she knew to be right and the one answer she had arrived at in her own heart.

"Yes replies Misaka instantly."

Kamijou Touma had fulfilled his role. The dream had been entered to 'wash her worries' away and Kamijou himself had the role of 'heavy lifting'. And indeed, the weight that had been lifted off Misaka Imouto's shoulders had been so heavy that now that she was free of it, she felt that there was nothing constraining her from living her own life for and by herself.

Kamijou maintained that smile as if realising that fact, bringing up his hand and stroking her hair out of her face as the breeze had blown it there, Misaka Imouto watching him carefully as he did so, placing his hand on the side of her head as he rubbed the side of her head in an almost calming manner.

She did not resist as he carefully, with not too much force used that hand to place her head in place as he slowly edged closer towards her. His footsteps crunched underneath the sand as he stepped forward, leaning in closer and closer so that Misaka Imouto could feel his breath against her lips as they almost touched.

"Then that is the only answer you need."

He whispered in a voice so soft however it was lost in an instant as he started to close the gap between his lips and hers. His hand was behind Misaka Imouto's head and she did not resist or push away.

Her beating heart and flushed cheeks knew one thing as that boy closed the gap in the scenery that they were in. She knew what this was and the eventual kiss that was about to happen.

And she knew.

She wanted this beyond anything else and would do nothing more than accept it for what it was.

That only thought filled her mind as she could feel his breath inside her mouth, their lips being that close. He edged closer and closer, about to overcome that small gap between their lips and put Misaka Imouto into a perfect embrace and connection of their bodies through their lips-

* * *

Just as Misaka Imouto woke up.

The roof of the hospital room she was in came into her vision and the movement of her reacting to the sudden awakening caused the Indian Poker card to slip from her forehead and land on the side of the pillow where she had rested her head.

She turned her head and looked at said card, noticing the apples that had been cut next to her bed and the tool that had been used to cut them.

She might have not needed her knowledge of military training for the life ahead of her however she knew that there was definitely a call for it right now.

She snatched the fruit knife from the table and instantly turned her body over as she held the knife over the Indian Poker card with a dangerous light in her eyes.

"Commencing the purge bluntly states Misaka as she begins the execution."

Misaka Imouto twitched slightly as she gripped tighter on the knife as she held the Indian Poker card in her grip, ready to stab the knife into its form for messing with the heart of a pure maiden in such a way as it had.

Her gaze never wavered off the card itself as she strummed her hand along the handle of the knife before doing something that she had not expected with a sigh.

She lowered the knife and put it to the side of the table, looking at the Indian Poker card with a somewhat mystified gaze.

She knew something else as well.

Currently, the Misaka Network was in a state of shock due to the scene that they had all just experienced as Misaka Imouto's shared memories and dream state passed into them as they remembered the words that had been given towards them by their Saviour on that sandy beach.

Their emotions were in turmoil and the only thing that Misaka Imouto knew she could not do right now was send that knife into the body of the card that had saved her and made her realise what it meant for her to live.

She had a mission now and she had chosen to accept it.

And it was all because of that boy.

"Oh? You're awake? So, how did you enjoy the card?" A voice entered the room as Misaka Imouto turned towards the nurse that had given her the card, who walked in with a knowing smile on her face.

"Misaka feels as though the experience was satisfactory replies Misaka. It serves it stated purpose says Misaka while referencing what you said it would do. Misaka does indeed feel as though her worries were washed away." Misaka Imouto truthfully and honestly gave her reply as the nurse smiled.

"That's good. But what about that ending? Don't tell me that you're not at least a bit upset about it?" The nurse asked with that same grin as Misaka Imouto turned away and looked out the window towards the sunlight that streamed in through it.

The sunlight that came from that brave, new world that she had chosen to step in now full force.

She and the rest of the Sisters because of those words spoken towards them.

And they were going to do so for and by themselves.

"Misaka feels as though everything is fine replies Misaka. Misaka cannot complain because Misaka knows that living right now for that same experience would make Misaka think that the result of a hard journey would be worth it gives Misaka honestly."

"Hm…"

The nurse smiled to herself as she scratched her head.

"Well if you think so. Although, Part 2 of the 'series' that that card is a part of goes through with the kiss. It's a hit with the nurses. Not to mention the….'experiences' that you get from Part 3. I think it might be a bit too graphical for someone your age. …Ah, did I say that out loud!?"

The nurse did her bad habit once again as she covered her mouth as Misaka Imouto stared at her with a blank gaze, blinked once and then fell forward, unable to move because of the chaos that was erupting in her mind.

After all, given what she had just learned, there was no way that the Misaka Network, nor Misaka Imouto herself was going to let that go.

As soon as they all calmed down though, they would have to pursue that illustrious target that was Part 2 that seemed so far out of their grasp for now.

* * *

With the processing power of the Misaka Network though, the final mystery that had surrounded the dream itself had reached its resolution.

A knock at the door made Misaka Imouto look from the window where she was entranced by the beauty of the outside as she turned towards the door.

"Come in says Misaka."

Why had Kamijou Touma, something that was a part of the dream and thus something that had to be moulded by the dream, rejected her advances and showed her a solution that had seemed as beautiful as the beach that she had ended up on?

After thinking about it for a moment and the information that had been provided, the Network had arrived at a suitable answer that solved those very issues that had plagued them.

After all, they had been told in the beginning hadn't they?

'Kamijou Touma' in the dream had not been someone that had been there as a part of the dream but rather someone that had been 'created' from observations and analysis of his own thoughts and responses towards issues that he would be given.

It was then Kamijou Touma; the boy who did not even have to be there, that had saved them from the person that they had perhaps been unable to fight. And that had been themselves.

Kamijou Touma had reached out his silent and unwavering hand and truly saved the Sisters from their own doubts, dragging them out of the darkness and holding their hand as they flinched at the brilliant sunlight.

There were no words to express their thanks nor did he know what he had done.

But once again, he had saved them when the Sisters had not expected such a thing to occur.

"Misaka Imouto? How are you feeling?"

A familiar voice came from the entrance as a head poked itself around the corner to look at Misaka Imouto in her bedridden state as the girl felt her breath catch at the mere presence of her Saviour. The Network went into a state of jealously and shared admiration for their visitor as Kamijou walked into the room holding a bouquet of flowers.

He was their angel to counter the demons.

However his unexpected entrance was not met with complete happiness at his appearance.

"What happened to you? asks Misaka while looking at your wounds." Misaka Imouto immediately gave a concerned voice as Kamijou blinked and realised what she was talking about.

After all, his sports uniform was ripped, his face was covered with bruises and his skin was covered with numerous bandages that were clearly not from wounds that happened naturally during the Daihaseisai.

"I have no idea to be honest," the boy complained as he strode over towards her bedside and placed the flowers on the table. "I've had women and even some guys come up to me telling me 'take responsibility' for….something. I got most of these when one of them came up to me during the swimming relay in her swimsuit and then…." He shuddered a bit as if recalling the memory however shook his head.

"How about you? How are you holding up?"

Misaka Imouto though did not reply as she silently glared towards the boy, wondering if she had the heart to tell him what it was that was the cause of the problems that he was facing. Well, this was just his misfortune in the end so she merely waved it off and decided against the idea.

"Misaka is fine however Misaka suggests that you visit a doctor for your wounds, advises Misaka."

"I've been trying to but all of the nurses keep on taking me to their rooms and telling to 'take responsibility' as well! I have no idea what's going on in this City but it's driving me nuts!"

Kamijou let out that yell as he sat down and winced slightly before grinning and looking towards the girl with that grin.

"As a result, I've decided to keep you company for a while. Just until things die down, but I suppose that's a pipe dream. Such misfortune. Hahahaha…Hope you don't mind if I hang out here though."

Kamijou said those words plainly with that grin on his face as Misaka Imouto stared back at him in wonder. For some reason, although he did things that were stupid and unreasonable, he always had the ability to pop up in the exact right moment and say the exact thing that one needed to hear.

Whether one was dreaming or not, it seemed as though Kamijou Touma never changed.

And he was perfect that way.

"You can stay…provided you take responsibility for what you did to all Misakas replies Misaka."

"Wha-!?"

"Misaka is joking says Misaka in jest."

The pale face of the boy immediately filled with colour as he breathed heavily, clutching his heart as if recalling a bad memory before letting out another laugh as well. That smile immediately lifted up Misaka Imouto's spirits despite the fact that she had been lying about joking.

After all, given his role in their lives, it was only natural for Kamijou Touma to 'take responsibility'.

But that was for another time.

As right now as patient and visitor bantered, Misaka Imouto truly felt as though living wasn't that bad.

Especially if it had moments like this.

* * *

**[1] Seppuku. You hear it a lot in movies and the like and it's basically suicide by sticking a blade into your gut, cutting it open and causing disembowelment. It's not pretty to be honest.**

**The theme here, as is always an important thing with the Sisters was 'life'.**

**While the concept seems easy for us, it would be natural for the Sisters to feel lost along the way when they look for a purpose to live. While such a thing was explored during ACUL0, I wanted to take things differently here. While in the Sisters arc of A Certain Unknown Level 0 was more based around Touma telling the Sisters what it means to be alive, here it was more around the personal demons of the Sisters and how they are afraid of what that means.**

**While the point in ACUL0 addresses this as well, from the perspective of the Sisters, I think that this fear is more important to be solved than 'what it means to be alive' even though Touma addresses both in this and the other fic. In the end though, given how the Sisters were born to die, can they truly live? becomes the question.**

**And I made Misaka Imouto the focus here! The hard part about this second part was the fact that you guys already know the end result and what happens. But the character doesn't meaning that I had to come up with another way to get across what you already know. If you didn't get it in the previous one maybe hearing it again was better for you? That's my hope at the very least.**

**Different reactions that Misaka Imouto would have here become important so I hope that for the most part, you looked at this and thought to yourself "I want Misaka Imouto to be shown the light and beauty!" I hope that I did this in a way that met the characters despite the inner demons of the Sisters being revealed to 'Touma'.**

**But still, I said what would happen in Part 2 of the dream series that BLEU would give out in that the kiss happens. What about Part 3 of BLEU's dreams though!? It's a lemon and I guess I will never write that to be honest. It would defeat the point of the one-shot that this is.**

**Such is Touma's misfortune.**

**I hope that you enjoyed this though and felt like the dream was something that has grown in amusement.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**It's spreading. It's like….a Disease of some sort. I can just imagine what would happen if 'other characters' in the Magic side came across something like this….I feel constrained as only really Science side characters can be a part of this.**

**And from me, I hope that you had a Happy New Year and enjoy the rest of it and what is to come.**


	19. The CONS of a Forgotten Childhood

**For some reason, I've really wanted to do this idea for a while. As a whole, it might seem as though the concept makes me a bit of a sadist for Touma but in the end I think it is despite the suffering that he faces that makes him such an overwhelming character.**

**While Accelerator has his pains and Hamazura does as well, it seems as though their actions and lives have been towards pushing past all of that. However for them, it seemed to me as their suffering in their earlier life was something that they channelled and turned them into villains in OT 3 and SS 1.**

**But for Touma, it's a bit different. But I think I'll let you enjoy this for the most part before I go into the details of what I'm trying to show here. Or maybe I'm trying to think too much into it and be symbolic or something.**

**First things first, this is a two-shot. So the next 'part' of this will not have an intro and this will not have an AN at the end. The next 'part' though will have a chapter title so I hope that you look forward for what is to come as it will follow next week.**

**Before we begin though with this original idea (see, I didn't run out of them!), I'd like to thank my beta reader PokeRescue18 first. He's had life going on and so have I but despite that he's really stuck with me despite some falls along the way. I think you guys should pause and thank him too.**

**But I also think you should pause and thank yourself. I never thought that things would reach this stage with a few one shots nor would I think they would be this popular (are they?). It's all because of you so thank you.**

**And as we begin, I'd like you to do what I hope you always do.**

**Enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark (I put spaces here for some reason. I've finally noticed.) See you in the next part!**

* * *

Something That Never Mattered To Him, Past or Present. _JOKE_Side_A_.

"What's the difference between snot and broccoli?"

"…..They are both green? Wait no, that's not a difference…"

"Bwahaha! Are you an idiot?! That's not the answer! It's…it's….I have no idea."

"Then how am I an idiot?"

"Is it because one of them is hard?"

"Can't snot be hard as well?"

"Is it because one is soft? Wait no, you can have soft broccoli."

"Is it because one belongs in the nose?!"

"I put broccoli in my nose once."

"What's the answer?!"

"Alright guys you ready? It's that kids don't like to eat broccoli!"

There was silence in the playground for an instant before the group of children burst into laughter, some clutching their stomachs as they fell to the ground as they realised that to a disgusting extent it was somewhat true.

The sun beat down on the playground with the children that had been telling jokes sitting near the swings as the one that had told the joke in the first place sitting in the best spot, on the swing. The other children gathered around him like ants to a queen and it clear who was the ring-leader of the group present.

They were all small children, their vocabulary and childishness suggesting that they had just started kindergarten. While they had yet to overcome the educatory gap that was elementary school, the child still had randoseru by their sides even though there was probably nothing to put into them. **[1]**

The cheery laughs in the local playground made high schoolers that were passing by look on in reminiscence as the children there seemed to be waiting for their parents to pick them up after a 'tough' day of school.

The playground was slowly filling with other children, both from other kindergartens and nearby elementary schools, smiles and laughter filling the entire atmosphere and giving a sense of peace that seemed to be cherished within moments such as this.

But for those that loved their peace and wanted to cherish their own smiles, their selfishness meant that for those that were not a part of them, those children would never seek to make sure that those outcasts had the ability to smile with them.

Such was true for the scene that was in the playground.

While children ran around, laughed and told jokes, one child sat underneath a tree, back against the trunk as he wiped the cut on his face that had happened due to a stray cat attacking him, his other arm in a sling.

His black hair was flat however the way that it was sticking out at the sides suggested that he had at least tried to use gel to emulate some sort of hair style that he had seen in a magazine with limited success. The gel though seemed to have not hardened yet meaning that there were leaves and small insects stuck within its sticky grip.

His clothes were ripped in small places and it seemed that the numerous stitches that were in place had attempted to fix where the clothes had been ripped before but with new battle scars, it only showed that there were either going to be new stitches or a new pair of clothes to be purchased entirely.

The young Kamijou Touma, having just started elementary school wiped the cut on his face as he waited silently for his mother, Kamijou Shiina to pick him up from the playground where he sat alone.

His isolated presence was ignored by those around him and for the most part, the small boy had accepted that entirely. He would be without friends or someone with him for as long as he lived and he truly believed that at the bottom of his heart.

And there was only one reason for such.

_Misfortune_.

A stray cat had attacked him and bugs were stuck in his hair due to the gel that he had tried to put in his hair. Although those things might have seemed normal, for the small boy those were only minor manifestations of the misfortune that he had been born and cursed with from day one.

The minor manifestations were not that bad. Kamijou lived his life and accepted those for what they were but it was not those small things that had led him to be shunned and hated by those around him.

No, it was the _other _manifestations that plagued him that had caused him to become what he was, in his own eyes and the eyes of others.

It was the manifestations of his misfortune that truly made him seem like a 'God of Pestilence'.

After all, there was no way that it was natural that _he would be hit by a car that had suddenly swerved off the road because of a burst tyre_.

He had been walking to his kindergarten when it had happened and the police that had investigated the incident had found that the tyre of the car that had hit him had burst suddenly, due to a tiny stick on the road piercing the rubber.

Logically, there was no way that something like that could happen. There was no way that a tiny stick could pierce the rubber of a tyre that was meant to withstand the rough conditions of the road. However it had happened and the police had sighed as they wrote it off, _once again_, as misfortune.

They did so without concern and without worry in their eyes. Only resignation and expectations as if they had expected things to end up like they had, with the small boy being dragged off to hospital to mend his broken arm.

It was lucky that that was all he had escaped with but in the eyes of those around him, it was nothing short of misfortune that had placed him in the situation in the first place.

And the police were not the only ones to think that. It had spread throughout the entire community meaning that everywhere he went, Kamijou was certain that he was going to have people turn away from him and try to flee down the road as soon as they saw him.

Adults shunned him and did their best to avoid contact with him. Any adult that was new or at least tried to be civil in some way would always have a 'friend' appear from out of nowhere and drag them off for 'a long chat after not seeing them for so long'.

High schoolers that were supposed to be people to look up to parted ways whenever the boy walked down the street.

And children, such as the ones in the playground isolated and marginalised him, ignoring his presence altogether unless they had the idea that today was a good day to bully him for some reason or another.

All because of misfortune.

Still, despite that very thought, Kamijou Touma still smiled, hearing the punchline of the joke that had been said all the way over by the swings. Since he was isolated he felt as though he had a good sense of hearing and sight in order to gather as much information from his surroundings in order to judge what might be misfortune and what might not be.

Although it seemed as though such an attempt was pointless because of how random and horrible the things he had to endure had been.

"Hey."

A voice came through the playground that seemed oddly loud as Kamijou slowly edged his eyes without moving his head to where it had come from.

It wasn't a special ability or anything but to make sure that no one felt as though the boy was looking straight at them, Kamijou had slowly learned to use his eyes to search out things of interest without moving his head too much. Not only did it mean that he could still take in things around him perfectly but it also protected those around him that truly feared what would happen if the boy were to look straight at them.

For the sake of the happiness of people around him that truly wanted to laugh and play, Kamijou did nothing more than accept the role of a monster and try to live his life without harming those people that were happy.

Right now though, Kamijou turned his eyes and spotted one of the boys over by the swings, or rather the boy on the swing itself, standing up and looking straight at him.

There was no one else around Kamijou so it clear who the boy was looking at and yet Kamijou did not turn his head as to make sure that the boy was not 'branded' with the gaze of the God of Pestilence.

"Hey, Plague."

Kamijou did not move his head, instead using his peripheral vision still to see that the boy was walking straight towards him. Those actions in itself seemed to make everyone in the entire playground freeze as they watched the small boy approach the sitting Kamijou until the boy was standing right in the same shade as Kamijou.

Only now did Kamijou turn his head and look up towards the boy.

"…"

He said nothing as the other boy frowned and spat out words towards him.

"Did I say something funny?"

"Takehiko! What are you doing!?"

One of the other boys hissed in fear towards 'Takehiko' as he stood behind him however it was Takehiko that stood in front of Kamijou as Kamijou merely looked up towards him.

"I'm talking to you."

Takehiko said those words again as it was clear that he was not going to leave until Kamijou said something.

"I'm sorry."

Those words came out of Kamijou's mouth, sincere however at the same time rehearsed as he had said them so many times before to those that had looked at him when he had faced misfortune.

"For what? Did I say something funny? Did you think that I was talking to you when I told that joke?"

"No, I-"

"No one likes you, God of Pestilence. Shut up and go die. You don't deserve to be happy so don't think for a moment that I said something to make you laugh!" Takehiko spat out those words towards the small boy as adults and high schoolers walked past. They looked at the scene that was occurring and merely made their way off as if it was no one's business.

Takehiko spoke the truth and there was no way that Kamijou was going to deny it whatsoever. He understood after all.

Kamijou Touma as an existence was nothing. Merely a burden and someone that was hated by everyone around him. The thought that he deserved happiness was ridiculous given how he was the one that harmed people around him with his misfortune.

But even so, hearing those words hurt.

They stabbed into his soul as they were confirmed and twisted and wrenched into his heart like a knife.

Yet Kamijou did not say anything nasty or defensive in response.

The small child merely looked towards Takehiko and said those same words again.

"I'm sorry."

"I don't want your stupid 'sorry', you Plague! I told you to go shut up and die!"

What happened next was expected but at the same time shocking given how everyone knew exactly what was going to happen and how it was going to play out.

Takehiko wasted no time in picking up a stone and throwing it towards Kamijou, the small boy falling to the ground as the stone hit him in the side of the face. He fell in shock, reaching with his good arm to touch the wound on the side of his face and feeling the warmth of the blood rolling down.

It was a small cut and there was nothing to it.

After all, this was _nothing but misfortune_.

And Kamijou's expression still did not change as his face did not twist with pain or surprise. Instead, he merely got back up and leaned against the tree once again, looking at Takehiko and repeating those same words.

"I'm sorry."

"I told you! Shut and go die!"

"Yeah!"

"Go die!"

"No one likes you!"

"You're nothing but misfortune!"

"Stay home and don't come out!"

"I wish that car had killed you!"

Takehiko's words had started something that spread towards the other children in the playground as they all started to jeer and spit words towards the boy that was defenceless and wounded. But none of them cared. After all, this was the boy that was born with misfortune and lived his life spreading his curse to others like a disease.

Thus because of such, he had to be treated for what he was. The curse that they had the misfortune of meeting.

Takehiko picked up another stone and threw it as Kamijou tried to cover his face as the rock hit his arm and left a slight bruise however that stone was not the only one that was thrown.

Another came from a different direction and hit his cast, Kamijou wincing and gritting his teeth to withhold the scream that wanted to erupt from his mouth as a different child threw the stone. And then another stone came from a different direction, striking Kamijou at the very front of the head.

It too bounced off and was followed by another stone that struck him on the side of the body.

And then another stone came.

And another.

And another.

And another.

All the while, Kamijou Touma merely huddled his body as if hiding from the cold that was coming from the malice of the children, protecting his own body as stones bounced off it and dug into his skin and clothes that caused rips and small bruises and cuts to come on his skin. He said nothing, keeping his mouth shut as he merely closed his eyes in an attempt to withstand the pain that was coming from all directions.

And it hit him both internally and externally, striking at his body and carving its way into his heart as he once more asked a very basic question.

Why was he like this?

Why was he born with misfortune that caused this unhappiness to others around him?

Was it better if he truly went off and died?

He was as a child, lost in his own thoughts and the only thing that pulled his mind into reality was the sound of something cracking from right above him. On instinct upon hearing the new sound, Kamijou slowly rose his head and looked up towards the source of the sound.

And it was then that misfortune struck once again.

A branch from the tree snapped, falling and striking Kamijou in the side of the head as the boy fell towards the ground, leaving the boy's body to shoot with pain that filled his very core.

He face twisted in response to such however the one thing that he did not do was cry.

His tears had dried up long ago and there was nothing making him sad or unhappy at what was happening to him anymore. He had faced too much meaning that there were no more tears to leave his eyes.

So where was the crying that filled the air coming from?

Kamijou slowly rose his head and found himself looking towards the source of the crying, seeing that numerous children had fallen to the ground as well however none of them were hurt. In truth the only one that was hurt was the one that had started all of this in the first place.

Takehiko let out screams and tears as the branch that had fallen from the tree pinned him to the ground, falling on his leg meaning that he was trapped underneath its heavy weight, trying to move without any luck due to the combined forces of the pain that had filled his body and the weight of the tree branch that was on him.

Kamijou merely watched through an eye that had blood covering it as he wiped it and instantly stood but did not run away from the scene that would surely be blamed on 'misfortune' and thus pinned on him.

Instead, he did the one thing to make sure that that crying stopped.

Takehiko still had tears to cry. Which meant that he had lived a blessed life, able to cry at things that made him sad and be able to smile when he was happy.

And for the small Kamijou Touma that had truly lost that ability to cry now given that he had run out of tears, that in itself was something that he wanted to protect at all costs.

Takehiko had a life, peace and smiles that were awaiting him in the future. And if they were lost because of the misfortune that Kamijou had passed off onto him, then there would be no way that Kamijou would be able to forgive himself.

Kamijou Touma was clearly lonely and sad.

But that did not mean that others had to be the same because of him. Because of misfortune.

So Kamijou raced towards the fallen branch, leaning down with his one arm in order to try and lift the branch however found that the entire thing was too heavy for his small form. Indeed, the cut on his forehead where the branch had struck in the first place seemed too deep to be caused by a standard branch but that in itself only meant that Kamijou had the need to work even harder to ensure that those tears stopped.

"Get it off! Get it off! Get it oooooooooooooooooooooooffffffffffffffffffffffffff!" Takehiko's screams filled the air as Kamijou grunted, pain shooting from his entire body as he tried to shift the branch by himself with his bad arm. No one was going to help him, especially not after what had happened.

After all, in the minds of children, what would happen if someone that was revered as a God of Pestilence was bullied by someone and then by 'misfortune' that bullying child was caused some form of pain in response to them harming said God?

They would surely think that the one that had caused the bully pain was the child that they had been bullying, the God of Pestilence.

In the eyes of those children, this was clearly Kamijou Touma's fault, using misfortune to his advantage to make sure he harmed those that harmed him.

And that in itself was something to be feared.

To which that fear only made Kamijou forced to lift the branch by himself as he tried his hardest to shift the branch in any way that he could, sweat and blood covering his face as he used his tiny form to push against the branch that was on the ground.

It hurt to do so. It hurt so much however there was no way that the small Touma was going to have Takehiko harmed because of him when that bullying child wanted to smile with those that he loved more than anything else.

Kamijou grunted and pushed the branch slightly, the one movement causing the branch to lift slightly off Takehiko's leg as he immediately pulled it out from underneath it. The large bruise that the branch had caused when falling on the leg was clear, the disgusting purple line that had formed giving an indication of what had happened.

Takehiko though continued snivelling as he used the branch as a support as he tried to stand, doing so as he looked towards Kamijou that was panting heavily now that he had moved the branch without assistance.

And Tahehiko spat out the only words that were fitting for that God of Pestilence.

"This is your fault."

"I'm sorry."

And once again, that small boy gave that apology as if it was rehearsed. As if it was natural for people to blame the small child and it was natural for the boy to accept that it was his fault. As if it was natural for that extreme unfairness to press down on him from all directions and dig into his heart.

"THIS IS YOUR FAULT!"

Takehiko screamed at the top of his lungs before a voice came out from the side, making everyone turn towards where it was coming from.

"Takehiko?"

A woman stood at the very entrance to the playground, white in the face where she stood as she looked at the fallen branch and the massive bruise that had formed on the leg of the young boy. Instantly, Takehiko's mother raced towards the boy and inspected the bruise.

"Oh my G-. Wh-what happened baby? H-How did you get this? We need to take you to a hospital and make sure that your leg is f-"

His mother though stopped as she looked towards Kamijou that was covered in sweat and blood that was leaning against the tree branch as he panted in response to the pain and stress that his body had been made to endure. The mother stared at the boy, looking towards the branch and then the bruise that was on her son's leg.

She slowly stood up, putting a hand in front of her son in order to protect Takehiko as she glared towards the small boy that was leaning against the branch.

"What did you do to my son?"

The rationale and logic of the adult did not apply towards the God of Pestilence. It was clear that the small boy was hated by each and every one in the society that he lived in and that should have been enough to make the boy want to yell out towards those that harmed him.

But he did not.

He had run out of tears.

"I'm sorry."

_"What did you do to my son?!"_

The motherly shriek echoed into the air as Takehiko's mother instantly lashed out, striking Kamijou across the face as she slapped him. Kamijou fell to the ground as Takehiko's mother spat at the ground in front of him, wiping her hand that was covered with Kamijou's blood against the fallen branch.

"Don't come near my son again you monster. In fact, just leave and disappear. You're not wanted here. Understand?"

"I'm sorry."

Takehiko's mother's face twisted in response to the words that were being said. They might have sounded rehearsed but what else could Kamijou say? What other excuse could the small child give for something that was not his fault?

He truly felt sorry and truly said those words at the bottom of his heart.

However there was no way that they would ever be believed by those that shunned him so.

"Takehiko, we're leaving. We're going to the hospital right now!"

Takehiko's mother pulled the boy up who was covered in snot and tears as he sniffled at the action of being lifted as his mother raced out of the entrance of the playground as other parents watched her do so, in shock before looking at the black haired boy that was lying on his side, not moving.

And they too put things together as they dragged their children off to the safety of their homes and away from the boy that was filled with misfortune.

It was not long before the entire playground emptied and only Kamijou was left, lying on the ground where he had fallen after being slapped, not moving and instead letting the fatigue wash over him, his clothes being dyed red from the blood that rolled down his side.

"Touma-san?"

In that lonely playground, a cold voice filled the air, all emotion having left it as a woman looked towards the boy that was lying on the ground. Kamijou did not get up, only turning his eyes as he always did without moving his head towards the entrance of the playground and seeing the pale face of his mother standing still there.

"Mu…m.…."

Kamijou let out those weak words as they seemed to drag Kamijou Shiina to her senses as she immediately made her way over towards Kamijou, lifting him up and looking him over.

"Wh-what did they do to you? Touma-san, what did they do to you? Are you alright? You're hurt…Why are you always hurt? Why…"

Shiina let out those words as she looked at the boy in the eyes as she tried to make him smile however the pure anxiety on her face was at odds with what she wanted from her son.

"I'm sorry."

And those two words stabbed into her exposed heart, the grown woman trembling and trying to stop it by biting onto her lip however that was not enough to hold back the emotion that she was feeling for the safety of her own son.

"Touma, you don't have to be sorry."

Shiina instantly wrapped Kamijou into a tight embrace that caused her hair and face to be covered with the blood that was on the side of her son's face as the emotions and pure sorrow that filled her spilled out in the form of the tears that came from her face.

"You never, ever have to be sorry Touma."

"…I'm sorry."

Kamijou Touma rose his small hand and rubbed his hand through his mother's hair as she let loose those tears that she cried for the both of them.

And in that lonely playground, the only thing that those two members of the same family had was each other when the world had turned against them.

* * *

**[1] Randoseru. Those backpacks that you see in anime and in Japan that small children wear to elementary school.**


	20. The PROS of a Forgotten Childhood

Something That Never Mattered To Him, Past or Present. _JOKE_Side_B._

"And let me tell you, if I _ever _hear that you OR your son have come within 5 metres of my son, I imagine that my lawyers will have a nice long talk with you! In court! Have a nice day!"

Kamijou Touya spat out those words with malice as he slammed down the landline phone into its cradle. He leaned against the wall where he slid down towards the ground and covered his face with his hands as he sighed, rubbing his eyes from the fatigue that plagued them.

"Dad?"

A small voice came from the side of the hallway where the phone was and Touya instantly rose his head, completely alert for what was to come from the mouth of the person that had spoken.

And he relaxed as soon as he saw who it was, feeling extremely guilty that the face of fatigue and anxiety was something that he was showing to someone that had never even complained about what had happened to him only hours before.

"Touma, what are you doing over there? Come and sit next to Dad." Touya said as he patted the place next to him against the wall as his son, Kamijou Touma titled his head while looking towards him.

It had been mere hours since his wife, Kamijou Shiina had carried the boy through the door of their home, wrapped in bandages with blood covering his own clothes and Shiina's as well. Touya had naturally interrogated his wife however that in itself was a short conversation.

It only comprised of one question and one answer after all.

Q: What happened?

A: Misfortune.

Touya sighed at how that one word had been said in this house so many times that he felt like it was his son's life was an endless record of nothing but an unlucky streak. There were numerous places inside the house where Touma was banned from going alone, merely because of the fear that his parents had for his bad luck.

The first time they had allowed him to bathe alone they had thought that his bad luck was something that was merely a superstition and that coincidence was merely against their son like the plague.

They had naturally reassessed their view after he had slipped on a bar of soap and hit his head on the side of the bathtub. Given the small stature of the boy, the fall had nearly broken his skull but luckily he had avoided permanent injury, only getting away with a bandage over his head and a throbbing headache for months.

As a result of that one incident though, the kitchen, bathroom, garage, stairs and even the living room was somewhere where Touma had to be accompanied in order to make sure that he did not hurt himself in a way that would mean that the only thing that they could do in response to the injury was place their son in a coffin and lower him into the ground.

Kamijou Touma though looked hesitant towards his father as he shied away from the man. The loose clothes that he wore to cover his injuries caused by Takehiko and his friends and the cast that he wore to cover his arm made it seem as though he was a ghost that moved slightly away from the man as Touya blinked in confusion.

"What is it Touma?"

"Y-You look a bit scary Dad. I don't like it when you look like that."

Kamijou's response was plain and scared as Touya opened his mouth to say something however shut it in order to prevent himself from saying anything.

After all, how could he say that the reason that he was giving the expression of anxiety was because of his own son and how he had done nothing to prevent the pain that he had received? He could have run away, screamed or at least fought back.

But he did none of that.

Only responding with nothing but the words 'I'm sorry'.

He loved his son more than anything as did his wife. However in the past few months and years of what they had experienced, they had to ask themselves a very basic question.

Did their son love himself?

Did he value himself at all?

Some people lied to themselves to the extent to what had started out as a lie eventually became the truth. This was something that was enforced when other people, supported the lie that one told themselves to the extent that it was not long before someone actually believed the lie that they had been telling themselves for so long.

Was that the case with his son?

Had he been told that he deserved to die to the extent that he now believed it?

"I've just had a bad day Touma," Touya said with a forced smile. "Come and sit." Touya patted the place that was next to him again as Kamijou seemed to be hesitant in such as he eventually sat down next to his father. Touya responded as he wrapped an arm around his son.

"Dad, do you want to hear a joke?"

Kamijou's question was sudden as Touya looked surprised at his son that was staring back up at him before grinning and nodding.

"Yeah, I could use one right about now. But it better be a good one!" Touya said in enthusiasm feeling his mood lift somewhat in response to the words being said to him and his son's wish for him to be happy despite the events of the day.

"OK then! What's the difference between snot and broccoli?"

"Hmm…that's a tough one," Touya said with a frown however the slight smile in his eyes was something that he tried to keep hidden. He had heard this one before and knew the punchline however tried his best to make sure that Touma had his fun. "I don't know."

"You have to at least have a try!" Kamijou said with a childish pout.

"Oh alright then. Is it that….you can grow broccoli?"

Touya said it as a joke as Kamijou smiled in response and shook his head.

"No! That's silly! The answer is….Wait. Can you grow snot? I've never heard of snot being grown! I-Is that the right answer?! S-stupid Dad!"

"Wh-what?! Why are you calling me stupid!? You asked me to guess!"

"But you came up with something that is true! Stupid, stupid Dad! Pinhead! Baldy! Egghead! Baldy!"

"I'm sensitive about my hair Touma and you know it! I'm not even half bald yet so don't say anything regarding my hair! Is that why you said it twice?! Is it?!"

Touya let out that shout towards his son however noticed that there was one thing about the boy that had definitely changed.

He was smiling.

Touya blinked in surprise at the expression that was on his son's realising himself that the mood that surrounded both father and son was no longer the tense one that they had held beforehand. It was more relaxed, filed with an atmosphere where they were allowed to joke and truly express how glad they were that they were alive, in the here and now.

Why was it his son, the one that had received all of that pain, the one that had formed this situation? That was his role as the father, as the support for the boy that had been unable to cry when he was hurt because his tears had run out so long ago.

Yet it was the son that was the bigger and more mature man among the both of them.

Touya placed his hand upon his son's head in order to ruffle his hair, only to find that his hair was rather hard, courtesy of gel that he had tried to put in it himself. Not only that however he felt something squish within his grasp, lifting his hand off his son's head and seeing that there was a small squashed insect within the palm of his hand.

"Touma…why do you have bugs in your hair? I think some of them are still moving."

"I…I wanted to match that style in the magazine that Mum bought. B-But it didn't work….Such misfortune." The boy said those words with a downtrodden tone as Touya noticed how it was those last two that he had said that he seemed to be saying a lot lately.

It was becoming something of a catchphrase for his son that only seemed to place a light humour on what it was that he faced every day. Was that how he dealt with it, by making it seem like the things that he faced were nothing but a joke? In order to downplay what it was that he faced?

"You know you can say something Touma," Touya said those words with a wavering voice towards his son as the boy slightly rose his head and looked at his father. "You can say something about what it is that you go through. 'Stop' or 'Help me'. Those words aren't something to be ashamed of."

Kamijou was silent as he let out a slow nod as his father pushed his hand through his son's hair a bit more forcibly.

"They won't though will they? Even if I say those things, nothing will change." His son's small words held defeat in their tone and that in itself was enough for the grown man to freeze and he pushed his hand through the black hair of his son and pulled out the small bugs.

Kamijou Touya knew all too well.

He knew that even if his son said those words from the very bottom of his heart then nothing would change and he would merely be shunned still.

It wasn't that he was unable to say those words.

It was merely that even if he said them, no one would save him. There was no one that was going to save a villain after all. No one was going to try and reason with a pure evil that they condemned without thought.

And the fact that they were being said by his very son who had accepted the fact that there was nothing to come from those words made it all the harder for that father.

He was supposed to be the strong one, the one that his son turned to with tears in his eyes whenever he scraped his knee or tried to emulate what his father did for a living and failed in doing so.

However that had never happened. The boy had hid his tears and cheered up his father without ever asking for that very help that he needed to be given after everything went south for him.

Kamijou Touya could do nothing but watch and do his best to shoulder that burden that his son seemed to hold but that in itself was nothing more than pointless.

After all, nothing would change.

So all his father had to do was focus on the thing that had always stayed the same.

"Then you don't have to say them to others. You can say them to me. Or to your Kaa-san. Because we will do our best to save you Touma. Because we love you and there is nothing that will change that very fact. Understand?"

Touya said those words as he lightly stroked his son's bandaged cheek as the boy nodded once again, turning his head away from his father. Was he trying to hide the painful expression that he had on his face now that someone had reached a hand out towards a monster like him? Was it really that sad that the only people that would ever say those words to him now were his parents?

"Got it Dad. I'll…do my best."

"That's my boy. You really are my son. Built like a tank you are." Touya said with some pride as a light chuckle left the boy's mouth.

"It's like I could become a hero someday! What do you think Dad?!" Kamijou asked with enthusiasm as he rose and punched the air in front of him with energy however winced from the movement as his father laughed.

"You? I can see it happening right now! Kamijou Touma, the hero of Japan, no, the world! Saviour of all girls and winner of hearts! Defeater of all the villains of the world!"

"Huh? Shouldn't everyone get the chance to be happy and be saved, even those villains? Even those that cannot say the words 'Stop' or 'Help me', surely those people are the ones that we heroes have to look out right? Everyone can be saved and as a hero, I have to work hard at it!" Kamijou grinned with pure happiness as he looked at his father that merely blinked in response before sighing.

It was truly a wonder.

Touya had no idea how in the world his son did it. After being through the experience that he just had, there was nothing stopping him from hating the world around him and the people in it because of what they had put on him.

However the small boy only had faith and hope from what he had said when Touya looked in between the lines of what he had said. Faith in the goodness of people that they never showed him and hope in the fact that they would one day show that kindness towards another person but it was never to be him, something that he knew.

The boy truly wanted everyone to be happy despite the pain that he faced.

No it was probably _because _of the pain that he had faced. He knew what it meant to be on the verge of tears without anyone to reach their hand out, take his own and save them. Which meant that if there was no one then the only thing that was in the mind of Kamijou Touma was to stand up and make sure that he gave that helping hand to others that needed it more?

He was surely in pain. He surely wanted to cry at the unfairness of the world.

However he moved forward knowing that there were other people in the world with that same pain that he wanted to be happy because he understood just how much value there was in a single smile.

Kamijou Touya had no idea how his son did it.

But he was immensely proud of the fact that it was the case.

"Touma."

"And then I would be like 'Pow, pow, pow'! Laser beaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam! Yes, what is it Dad?" Touma asked his question as he looked towards his father while using his sling as a makeshift cannon, 'firing' his laser towards the front door.

"I love you."

"I love you too Dad!" Kamijou smiled towards his father as his father returned it, standing up and sniffing the air before rubbing his stomach.

"Well it seems as though Kaa-san is putting the final touches on dinner. What do you say you and I go and see her a bit early?" asked his father as Kamijou nodded and raced through the house as fast as he could with his father close behind to make sure that he did not fall or anything.

The kitchen that was in front of him and the woman standing at the counter made it seem as though the scene was something that was normal for them however there was one exception.

The bandage that was next to Kamijou Shiina for safety precautions as she cooked only showed just to what extent she truly cared for her child as she turned her head while slowly test-drinking the miso soup that she had made in a special dish only to feel Kamijou smash into her side. She wobbled slightly as Kamijou hugged her with one arm as she put down the dish as Kamijou grinned while looking at her.

"And I love you too Mum!"

"Oh my, oh my. Where did this come from?"

Shiina looked up towards Touya who walked in behind his son, her face still a little pale after everything that had happened today however it seemed as though colour had returned to it after her son had tackled her so and said his words.

Touya smiled and that in itself was all that Shiina needed to have for her right now.

While Kamijou had said that everyone should be saved, there were people close to him that did not hate him in the slightest and truly felt as though his very existence was something of a blessing that had saved them in its own fashion.

Because no matter what happened, or what he was put through or what people called him, Kamijou Touya and Kamijou Shiina would always say that they loved their son and that his very presence was something that they would never trade for the world.

"I love you too Touma-san. Are you feeling alright?" she asked in concern, her hand reaching for one of the bandages that she always kept in every room of the house.

"Of course! My laser beam is the ultimate! Pow, pow, pow!" Kamijou danced around, waving his sling without a care that surely would have been rather dangerous as Shiina let out a laugh while looking towards her husband that leaned against the doorway and looked at the scene in front of them with that charming smile on his face.

If ever they needed something to remind them that something good always came out of the bad, then this was all that they needed to see.

They only needed to look as far as the family that they loved so much.

"Well for now can you put away your laser beam and get ready for dinner Touma-san? Touya-san if you would please?" Shiina asked as she indicated towards the table that was not yet set as Touya nodded.

"Of course Kaa-san!" Touya said in eagerness as he went to the countertop and took the ready to be set plates and cutlery as Touma made his way towards his seat as he picked up his chopsticks with his only good hand. He rested his cast on the table however the inability to use both hands seemed to be something that was hardly significant for the hungry boy as he drooled while looking towards the empty bowl in front of him, the scent that was coming through the air only making him imagine what was to be served.

"But first what is the golden rule that we need to think of?" asked Shiina as she held three plates expertly as she stood near the table as Touya took his seat as well.

"No! I don't want to say it!" Kamijou let out a childish wail as Shiina gave him a glare with narrow eyes.

"Touma-san, where do you think the energy of your laser comes from?"

"I-It doesn't come from….that does it!?" Kamijou's small eyes went wide as Shiina merely nodded as Kamijou's mouth went agape.

"It does. Laser energy comes…..from eating your vegetables!" Shiina expertly wasted no time, laying out the dishes that she had held in her hands and spreading them across the table, each plate filled with a variety of vegetables that were to be eaten by the Kamijou family.

"C-Can I get a new weapon? M-Maybe the superpower to eat endlessly so that I can't taste food and never get fat?!"

"Touma, then you wouldn't be able to eat meat properly right?" asked Touya towards his son as the boy went pale and hit his head on the table.

"Such misfortune." The childish words that came from his mouth made both of the parents smile and look towards each other.

Although it pained them to hear the boy say that, the words that he was saying suggested that he had the ability to laugh at whatever it was that he was facing. And that in turn meant that for the moment, this or sometime in the future was a time that Kamijou Touma could truly be happy.

And those parents wanted nothing more for their son.

"Don't say that! Here, I'll get the miso soup and the eel ready in an instant!" Shiina cried with a youthful voice as Kamijou's head shot upwards instantly as he looked over towards the kitchen where the food was before looking down at his plate and the vegetables there.

And a smile came onto his face that seemed to throw everything that had happened to him out the window and reveal that right now, this happiness was all that he needed to wake up for tomorrow.

"Mum, do you want to hear a joke?"

"Of course Touma-san. What is it?" asked Shiina from the kitchen as Touya silently smiled and looked down at the vegetables that he would have to eat as well before going white in the face as he looked at one of them in particular.

The green stalks of said vegetable pointed mockingly upwards to him.

Touya immediately rose his head and shook it rapidly so that it was a blur however Kamijou Touma didn't notice it as the cheery voice came from his mouth without the wiser.

"What's the difference between snot and broccoli?"

Kamijou Touya was sure of it as he saw Kamijou Shiina freeze.

Those broccoli stalks were definitely mocking him.

* * *

**And here we are, the end!**

**Before we get to my thoughts on what I wrote, I would like to apologise. I have been told that many people experienced great FEELS with this in which there were (not) manly tears. It's additionally been noted that these have lost their light heartened tone but I hope that this chapter changed that. I have also been told that I made quite the understatement about being a sadist for Touma so in jest I hope that this chapter served as a proper apology. I was aiming to at least make a lip tremble but it was surprising to see the effect overall. Sorry and thanks. Let's get to my thoughts starting with an obvious question.**

**Did you like it?**

**As you can see this was a two-parter in terms of a one-shot (a two-shot?!). The point I was getting across here was definitely the division between the lives of Touma focusing on when he was small. We know that it was a life that was hard and filled with misfortune however at the very same time, there was something that pushed him forward despite it.**

**Despite the misfortune Touma would have always found something good and pure within the experiences that he faced and I think this two-shot tried to show it off to the best I could. Side A was obvious; the pain that Touma faced because of the JOKE that was told and brought him misfortune. I hope for those that read that truly felt bad for Touma and hated the guts of Takehiko and those around him because of how they treated the boy that never even cried out for them to stop.**

**Side B was then how Touma used that pain and turned it into something that allowed someone to be happy. He used to joke the make Touya less stressed about what had happened to Touma and to bring the family together a little bit by saying it at the dinner table. Shiina though did not appreciate what was said though I can tell you that.**

**So what did you think of that idea so far? It was definitely a weighing of the pros and cons of a forgotten childhood but for Touma I think how he turns things around and makes people happy to the best he can is what makes him such a vibrant character.**

**So my expectation for you was in the first part, you cried a little bit and then in the second, you found yourself smiling given how Touma used the joke that caused him pain to make those around him smile.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please.**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**Whenever I write Touma in any sort of suffering, I get into a really good pace for some reason and I feel like a sort of Touma sadist. It makes me want to do a second part of this two-shot or the Endless Hell…..I don't know what's wrong with me. Maybe it's because I know he can pull through and aim for his ultimate goal or something?**


	21. The Shenanigans of Three Heroes II

**And here we are once again!**

**To be honest, I really zoom through these one-shots meaning that I think I spend more time here on these than I do with my main projects. I think that should be a habit I should stop though however I'll let you know how I do on that!**

**And yes, we're back with the requests!**

**It's always good to check out the reviews to see how far you are from getting your request fulfilled but for those that are reading the reviews and hoping that their request will be fulfilled, I think that I have to say something to someone who I was going to fulfil a request for but looking at when it was placed decided against it.**

**KurobaraIto, I just want to say I'm sorry that I was not going to fulfil your request this time. You made it back in Chapter 9 (if you remember) and asked for a Delta Force chapter and right after, I came out with The Interrogation, so I feel as though that sort of fulfilled it in a way. I will get to you though at a later stage and I'm forming the idea of the Heavy Object crossover idea you asked for as I'm typing this right now. So I hope you look forward to whatever I come up with then and wait patiently. I'm really sorry though for that and I hope you can forgive me!**

**So, for this request that is going to be fulfilled, it comes from FreakFactor who asked:**

**Nice chapter, you truly capture the heart of a Level 0. Though I think that Saten might also feel some loneliness at being a Level Zero around such skilled or powerful friends and believe she's being left behind by them. I believe she would want strength not power to stand by their side and she fears being judged by her friends by still wanting "power" She might also fear that desire as she already hurt her friends by using the Lever Upper and fears she might do so again in her selfishness. It might also be interesting to see a chapter where Touma and others meet alternate self, and if it's not an inconvenience can I request they meet the ones from the Danbooru Pool Another Colors.**

**And thus this chapter was formed. I'm not too sure what to think of it right now but here it is.**

**For those of you wondering what FreakFactor here is talking about, it refers to some alternate character designs for Touma, Accelerator and Hamazura that appeared back with Puzzdex a few months back. I'd forgotten about them but if you search 'alternate colour Hamazura saiba' and click on a Danbooru link for Saiba then you should find what these alternate colours were in the cards in an illustration.**

**But for those that don't want to do so, the alternate colours were:**

**\- Touma: Has spiky red hair and wears a black shirt instead of his short white one that is his summer uniform**

**\- Accelerator: Has black hair and wears the same cloths that he did in the anime adaptation of OT 12-13 save that the grey arrows are light blue and the whole shirt is white apart from that**

**\- Hamazura: His hair is grey, wearing a blue hoodie instead of his brown one with a yellow-ish shirt underneath.**

**That's it in a nutshell but for those wondering what will happen when the protagonists meet another version of each other…well then here you go!**

**Hopefully this turns out somewhat OK…..**

**Before we begin though, I'd like to thank four people. The first is naturally my beta PokeRescue18. With everything he's done for me, I cannot express my thanks any deeper.**

**The next is you, the reader. You're the reason that things have gotten this far and I hope you look forward to what is to come in this chapter and the ones after.**

**The next is the unfortunate KurobaraIto. I just want to apologise for what I've done to your request here but I shall get to you! I PROMISE! But thank you for sticking with me without knowing what was happening with my head prior to that decision. I've already managed to get quite a bit through the draft of the Heavy Object crossover so it should be up next month or so.**

**And the final thanks goes to FreakFactor. Without you, there would never be this request and idea and thus the second part of the Shenanigans of Three Heroes one-shot. For the most part I hope that you read this and think that your request was fulfilled nicely.**

**And for the rest of you, I hope that you enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

A Painful Task With No Reward. _Mirror_FIGHT._

They had never really thought about it however Kamijou Touma, Accelerator and Hamazura Shiage all felt now the reality of having a real life clone in front of them was something of a pain in the ass.

"Wow, is that what I look like? Black hair really doesn't suit me. It's red or nothing man!"

The former two heroes though did not mean it in a way that would insult Misaka Mikoto or the Sisters however right now with the sight that was in front of them, it was hard to not have the thought that clones and having someone speaking with your voice and face was extremely nauseating.

"W-Well, it's nice to meet you. I hope we can get along."

Hamazura Shiage felt as though seeing this 'clone' in front of him though was something that he was never going to get over.

"Who cares? We may as well enjoy ourselves while we're here! Let's go rob some office lady with a red sports car! I'll show you guys a good time!"

The main reason why those three heroes felt those negative thoughts about such a serious issue was simple.

It was because the 'clones' in front of them were utter and complete idiots….not that the Originals could say anything better about themselves.

They had no idea how it happened however the moment that the Originals had met by chance and simply decided to hang out inside a park without anyone in it, a ripping sound had erupted through the air. Suddenly, within mere seconds, space had broken and forced open a purple hole that had suddenly appeared in front of them without reason. It broke logic, reason and all forms of rationality however through this purple hole had stepped the three people that were in front of them now.

The people that had stepped in front of them were…themselves. 'Kamijou Touma', 'Accelerator' and 'Hamazura Shiage' had all stepped out of the purple hole without a care and there were some massive differences between them and the Originals who had only stood with gawking mouths.

'Kamijou' had the most obvious difference with the red spiky hair shooting in all directions. He wore what looked to be casual clothes however the black shirt and more casual pants seemed as though the boy had merely stumbled upon the 'portal' that had brought him to Academy City in the first place.

'Accelerator' was someone that was more carefree, completely different in personality, clothes and even the stance at which he stood. While the Original was more intense and intimidating, this Accelerator gave a gentler feel about him, something that was enhanced with black hair and light coloured clothes.

'Hamazura Shiage' seemed as though he hadn't changed at all although it seemed to the Original that his stupidity might have increased. 'He' picked his nose and looked rather bored as if the idea to actually steal a car was something that he wanted to do but for the most part his different coloured clothes and hair was something that was shared by all of the copies.

And something else that was shared between the Originals was the looks of pure disbelief and shock towards the people in front of them.

"What the hell!? What? How? Why am I standing in front of me? And why do I look different!? What the hell is that purple hole!?" Kamijou Touma shouted in disbelief in the lonely park while pointing towards the purple hole that was hovering behind the copies that had suddenly appeared.

'Kamijou' turned around and merely rose an eyebrow while facing Kamijou as he stuck a thumb behind him to indicate towards the purple hole.

"That's my line, me. And that's what we in the scientific community call…a portal."

"Fuck off you fake hero. There's no way any of us are calling that thing a portal." Accelerator spat out those words as the 'copy' gave him a look of disbelief that suggested that he was truly shocked out the sound of the swears that had come in his own voice.

"Ah I see…so that's a portal." Hamazura merely nodded and crossed his arms however his gaze was focused on the 'copy' that was doing the same as the both of them merely accepted what it was.

"Why has a portal come here anyway!? And who are you, me? You can't be me! I'm me!" Kamijou stated towards his copy as he edged closer to look the boy in the eye as 'Kamijou' did the same, the both of them moving in the exact same way as if they were facing a mirror.

"On the contrary, how can you be me…when I am me? You are you and I am me." replied 'Kamijou'.

"But you're me! You can't be you when you're me!"

"How can I be me when I'm you?"

"That doesn't make any sense!"

"In the sense it makes no sense, it makes sense."

"…Such misfortune."

Kamijou felt as though his brain was fried from the conversation that was going nowhere as he fell to his knees due to getting nowhere as 'Accelerator' watched as 'Kamijou' grinned at Kamijou and looked on with some sympathy.

"Come on now. We at least owe these good people an explanation." He said as Accelerator gave the boy a frown and turned towards Hamazura that seemed just as surprised as him at the words that were coming from 'Accelerator's' mouth. They weren't bitter and containing an obvious resentment but instead rather calm and soothing.

The both of them could not get used to it either, simply because of the way that the Accelerator that they knew talked normally and hearing the rather calm words in his voice threw them off completely.

"H-Hang on though. You said that there was an explanation for this? Why are we meeting….us?" Hamazura asked as 'Hamazura' suddenly stopped looking for the red sports car and merely blinked while looking towards 'Accelerator'.

"Yeah. I'm interested in that too. I can't just ditch Rikou after everything we've been through."

"Wait a minute there. D-Did you just say Rikou? Is Takitsubo your girlfriend where you come from as well!?" Hamazura suddenly shouted out in complete enthusiasm towards 'Hamazura' as the other boy nodded and grinned.

"Yep…don't tell me that there's another Rikou here as well! There's no way that she's as good as mine though." he remarked.

"You take that back me! You know that there's only one girl for me and that's Rikou! No matter what alternate universe you're in and what separates us, there is only one girl for me! So you take back what you just said!"

"Hang on though, me. How can I take back what I said when I confirmed it for you? Are you saying that your Rikou is better than mine?!"

"You're damn right I am! The way her tracksuit accents her body and the subtle changes in expression that she always pulls…this is why she's the best! Not to mention the way she silently clings towards things that she wants although not changing her facial expression!" Hamazura's eyes seemed to light up as he went on about his girlfriend as 'Hamazura' merely scoffed, flicking his grey hair out of his face.

"Don't mock me…me. My Rikou is better than yours by a factor of at least 20! The way that she struggles towards getting the things in the convenience store that she wants but shies away the moment you notice and try and help her. The blushes on her face when you compliment her hairstyle when she pulls it back! They are all clearly superior to yours!"

"Is that so!? You want to put that to the test!? My Punch of Love for Takitsubo-chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!"

"Two can play at that gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame!"

The Hamazuras attacked each other, tackling each other to the ground as they wrestled and spat out things about the girl that they were dating (which technically was the same girl) while the Accelerators turned their heads away from the fighting boys and towards the Kamijous who were in a no better position.

"But since you are me, how can you be you? Clearly I am me and you are me so is there a 'you' in the first place? That's makes a second person narrative obsolete so is the third person 'they' actually the second person since there is no second person and thus…'you'? Since they are now you and you are me…doesn't that mean that they are me as well?" 'Kamijou', the red haired one was leaning next to Kamijou as he whispered into his ear as Kamijou looked down at his hands.

"I am not me…but you? Make it stop! I can't take it anymore!"

"There is no 'I'. Only me!"

"Stop iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttttttttttttt!"

Kamijou rolled around on the ground as he tried to contemplate what it was that was happening as 'Kamijou' burst out laughing and watched the confused boy try to put together whatever it was that was happening inside his head.

"Explain. Now." Accelerator spat out towards 'Accelerator' as the boy nodded timidly as he pointed towards the portal with his cane.

"W-Would you believe me if I said there was a rip in the time space continuum?"

Accelerator merely responded by lifting up the boy and dragging him over towards the portal without any hesitation.

"W-Wait a minute, me! Please hear me out! I was being serious! Truly serious!"

"I can just tell you're being lazy you asshole. So, if you have a proper explanation, spill it or I'm going to do the same with your guts." Accelerator spat out as he threw his copy to the floor as the boy let out a yelp upon being thrown.

That only served towards pissing off the boy even further.

Accelerator….THE Accelerator did not yelp. He did not whatsoever. And yet this…thing in front of him had the nerve to do so. Using his voice and face.

"Tch. This is retarded."

"I just want to go home personally. Guys…can we at least head back now? Wasn't this something that happened because Kamijou-kun decided that reversing the flow of the FIVE_Over's Railgun while Hamazura-kun manipulated that magician to stream line the energy? It's your guys fault in the first place!" 'Accelerator' complained however it was Accelerator that turned and looked towards him with a glare that could have frozen ice.

"What the hell did you just say?"

"Wh-what is it, me?"

"EVERYONE STOP SAYING 'ME'! I can't take it anymore!"

The cry from Kamijou was ignored as 'Kamijou' merely wrapped an arm around his shoulder and continued talking as the Hamazuras continued battling it out with each other however they were largely ignored.

"What did you just call the fucking hero and the fucking thug?"

"Who's a thug?"

"Who's a thug?"

Both of the Hamazuras, Hamazura having a foot in 'Hamazura's' face while he had a fist in Hamazura's stomach, shouted out towards Accelerator however he flipped his middle finger towards them as he glared towards 'Accelerator'.

"I…I called them Kamijou-kun and Hamazura-kun? B-Because I respect them?"

"Accelerator…." Kamijou rose his head to look at the white haired boy.

"I never knew you felt that way." Hamazura joined in as he looked towards Accelerator in new found admiration.

"I don't. Fuck off."

Which was short lived.

"See that Boss? He's being a tsundere."

"It's totally not cute though. Have you ever considered pig tails?"

Accelerator turned towards Kamijou who looked as though he had seen a ghost as he froze upon seeing the glare that Accelerator was giving him.

"Th-That wasn't me! It was me! I….I mean the other me!" Kamijou shouted out towards the boy as Accelerator turned towards the red haired one who was whistling off to the side without a care.

Accelerator narrowed his eyes however turned back towards 'Accelerator' and pointed towards the portal that was behind him.

"I'll be blunt because if you are me in any way then you will know that I have neither time nor patience to beat around the bush. I don't care how you got here. Just get the hell back to where you came from. If you have any respect towards the people that you left behind then you should want to do that immediately." Accelerator spat out words however they were awfully honest and deep within his heart.

He knew after all.

If this Accelerator was the same as him then there was someone that he had left when he had come here to this world.

And if he was in any way like him then he had worked hard, if not just as hard, to gain that peace and those people that he had left behind. That in itself was something that had to have worth to it and the both of them probably realised that very fact.

Staying here meant that the chance of not returning to that very peace that they had regained got larger and larger.

And if that had happened to Accelerator himself he was sure that he would surely lose himself in true despair and pain. He would surely lose himself in the pain and reality of never being able to see those smiles and faces of those that he had left behind.

Surely there would be people on the other side that would have the same face, have different personalities but still they would be the same physically. Seeing those faces and coming to terms with the fact that those people were not real, were not the people that he had worked to save was surely going to press down on him mentally until it eventually broke him.

It would be nothing more than a world of imposters when all he wanted was something genuine….something that he had here.

Which meant that there was only one thing that had to be said to reveal that very fact.

"This isn't your world. You don't belong here. So piss off. This isn't a plea to the heart, a wish or me begging. It's me telling you that you better leave, with or without my assistance. Whatever you choose will only determine whether you leave in one piece or several."

Accelerator wasn't going to ask them to leave nicely like the fucking hero. He would surely try and appeal to their sense of humanity, by asking them what they had left behind and asking them whether or not that they were happy leaving what they had gained in the hands of others as they lived here.

Hamazura Shiage would probably have said something similar, but focusing it more on his alternate self. Whether it be about abandoning ITEM or Takitsubo Rikou in particular, he would have asked 'Hamazura' if he was happy not seeing 'his' Rikou again.

Accelerator had his own ways of dealing with things however they seemed to be the most effective on 'Accelerator' as the boy seemed to go wide eyed and nodded, slowly standing up and looking towards the other boys.

"Hey guys…we really should be-"

"Nope. Not happening."

"I agree with Kamijou! We're here so we may as well have some fun!"

The Originals and 'Accelerator' all blanched as they looked towards 'Kamijou' and 'Hamazura' who had stood up and looked rather confident and without a care as they made their announcement to the world that they found themselves in.

"Look, we may as well have some fun while we're here. Besides what can go wrong?" 'Kamijou' spoke rather confidently as Kamijou pointed towards him, clearly angry given his facial expression.

"Did you really just say that? Why are you raising death flags like that here?! If you have the same tendency as misfortune as me then you know what happens as soon as you say something like that!"

"It's not going to be that bad! Besides, if there are two of us there's nothing that can stop us from claiming every female in this City as our own!"

'Kamijou' let out a ridiculous request as Kamijou merely looked towards him with a look that suggested that the idea was something that he was both against and for and the internal conflict within him was struggling to get him to reach an answer.

However his gentlemanly side took over (pushing back the swine side) and the boy merely shook his head.

"N-No! Why would we want to do that anyway!? And stop spitting out nonsense that's completely unrealistic! As normal high school boys, we have to at least return you back towards your own reality and fix whatever problems this will cause in the future!" Kamijou shouted as 'Hamazura' frowned while looking at him as did 'Accelerator'.

"Hang on there, black haired Kamijou. What do you mean….a normal high school boy? If you know the red haired Kamijou and are the same then surely there are some things that are the same over here right? Such as you _having the harem_?"

"I have a harem? ...Wait, YOU have a harem!?" Kamijou yelled at the top of his lungs as he looked towards 'Kamijou' with an open mouth as 'Kamijou' merely looked as though he wanted to slap his other self.

"What are you talking about? We should have the same experiences right so at least tell me you know Misaki, Mikoto, Seria, Aisa, Index, Itsuwa and the others right? Mind you those names are less than 0.001% of the entire harem." 'Kamijou' said as Kamijou waved his hand frantically.

"Wait, wait, wait. I have no idea who that first name is there but what does Misaka have to do with this? And Kumokawa-senpai, Himegami, Index and Itsuwa?" Kamijou asked, completely clueless as the 'copies' all went white in the face as they looked at each other.

"Oh my Othinus."

"Are you telling me that this Kamijou-kun….."

"…Is dense?"

"Who's dense!? I have no idea who you guys even are so at least explain to me why this paradise of men is something that another me has!? I-I knew it! There was no way that this Kamijou-san was ever going to be meet anyone nice and it had to be an alternate self that ended up stealing all of it! I just want one experience but to learn that the other me has something that I will never have….Such misfortune!"

Kamijou fell to his knees again and slammed his forehead into the ground as the others looked at each other. Even know they probably realised that the capability of getting the harem was there, the fact that the black, spiky haired boy was clueless and complained about what he had the capability of having was just shocking.

"Wait…if there are subtle differences in the worlds, don't tell me!" Hamazura turned towards his double as he grabbed him by the jacket. "Is there anything else about Takitsubo-chan that I should know about? Any subtle details that are different over there?!"

"Subtle details? How am I supposed to know? Wait….you mean like the Mugino and Kinuhata bunny maids?"

"You've got bunny maids? Not just bunnies….but maids as well?! And they're Mugino and Kinuhata?!" Hamazura went white in the face and seemed to fantasise about such a thing before the image of the Mugino and Kinuhata that he knew entered into his brain as a small tear came to his eye.

"It's never going to happen here so why am I so pissed about iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttttttt?!"

Hamazura joined Kamijou as the both of them slammed their heads into the dirt at the fact that their doubles had better lives than them although they were probably omitting just how hard they had worked for those lives.

Things were different but somehow they had managed to stay the same with the meetings and experiences that the boys and their alternate selves had.

"Wait! What about Accelerator? There has to be something over there that's different than here!" Kamijou, slightly bleeding from the forehead rose his head up and looked towards the white haired boy as Accelerator narrowed his eyes.

"You shut the hell up. I have no interest in-"

"Oh you mean how Last Order and Worst have officially been registered as my family under the Academy City Registry?"

'Accelerator' spoke as Accelerator turned his head so fast that it seemed as though it was nothing but a blur. He reached for his choker, activated it and leaned towards his double, grabbing him and throwing him to the ground again and put his cane in his double's face.

"You are going to explain that to me word for word. What the hell are you talking about?"

"W-Well there were a few things that happened and now they are both registered as my sisters under the official Family Registry. Well technically it was Aiho that did all of it and she's the adoptive mother but that's all there was to it, I swear! I didn't do anything wrong did I?!"

Accelerator seemed to twitch however in his heart he was sure that there was a twinge of something that he was sure the fucking hero and the fucking thug had felt in their hearts as well.

And that was jealously.

Accelerator was sure that whatever had happened was something where it was necessary for it to lead up to that stage yet the fact that someone else had something that he wanted was something that he could not deny. He was jealous and that was all that there was to it as he stood up and flicked off his choker with a click of the tongue.

"Son of a bitch….." He swore silently under his breath as 'Accelerator' stood up and watched the other boy with confusion as Kamijou tried to settle things down.

"N-Now now guys. Can you really stay here for that long? The…portal might close right? Don't you want to at least try and get back to where you came from without being stuck here?"

All heads turned towards Kamijou however 'Hamazura' merely sighed in response as he put a hand to his forehead.

"Well, it's sort of weird seeing this guy so relaxed and carefree when the one that I know only thinks with his dick."

The shout of "Hey!" came from Kamijou and everyone instantly knew what the problem was the moment that it was Kamijou that had spoken instead of 'Kamijou'. Why was he not reacting towards an insult towards his person? Was there a particular reason why he did not feel somewhat insulted?

"You have got to be kidding me…." Hamazura turned and looked around the entire area however it was clear from the silence in the air and the subtle tension that was there as well that they all had the exact same revelation.

'Kamijou Touma', the one with the harem, was gone.

And there he was in the distance, heading towards his prey that was walking by the park.

An office lady had her attention grabbed by the red haired boy and the quintet that was watching went white in the face.

"Dammit, is he trying to conquer this world's ladies as well!?" Yelled 'Hamazura' and Hamazura turned towards his double with an even whiter face.

"The way you say that suggests that he's at least covered the entire world with his hormones right? Don't tell me he's revered as a god over there?!"

"Well now that you say it…" 'Accelerator' turned his head and made that comment as Kamijou ran over towards Accelerator and grabbed his shoulders with bloodshot eyes and sweat covering his entire body.

"I don't care how you do it. Get me over there."

"I have no intention of getting involved in this but the repercussions of this pointless shit are surely going to leak outwards more than I know. You owe me one now you fucking hero!"

Accelerator grabbed Kamijou's arms that was holding him by the shoulder as he clicked on his choker as Kamijou realised what it was that he was trying to do, shouting out however never got another word out.

Accelerator turned his body and threw Kamijou through the air, changing the directions of the vectors to move forward in order to increase the speed at which Kamijou was thrown. He let out a scream as he slammed into his red haired double as they sprawled across the ground before smashing into a car that was parked on the sidewalk.

"What the hell man?! I'm trying to add towards your harem there!"

"Shut the hell up! You've done enough as it is! Please miss…please escape while I hold off this guy! He's pretty dangerous so make sure to get away as fast as you can!"

Kamijou put 'Kamijou' in a headlock as the office lady looked rather stunned however it seemed as though she was giving Kamijou odd looks that were accompanied by frequent blushes as she nodded and made her way off into the distance.

"Gack…see….? You've already conquered her and I have no idea how you did it so what are you complaining about?" 'Kamijou' managed to let out those words as Kamijou saw that the lady had exited their line of vision as he let go of his double and panted on the floor.

"What are you saying in the first place? There's no way that a guy like me is remotely going to have anyone romantically interested in him. I wouldn't mind it though!" Kamijou spoke realistically in his own view however the desires of the high school boy within him let themselves known in the end comment.

'Kamijou' merely shook his head and sighed.

"How are you me? Somehow there is cuteness to your innocence so I can't seem to get angry at you."

"Don't call me cute. It's creepy coming from me."

The Kamijous gave each other glares as the Hamazuras and Accelerators made their way over as they looked towards the two of them as Hamazura let out a pant.

"Well at least that worked out alright. Now I guess the only thing to do is-Hey, what are you doing?!"

Hamazura turned and looked towards 'Hamazura' who had jumped into the car that the Kamijous had slammed into, sitting in the driver's seat as he looked towards the interior closely.

"Huh? Nothing….just checking out these wheels."

"I don't trust those words when they come from me." Hamazura said with a dark tone as he jumped into the passenger seat in order to try and see what it was that his double was doing. He immediately deadpanned the moment that he saw his double's hands were underneath the wheel, fiddling with wires that he clearly should not have been messing with.

"H-Hey what are you d-"

His concern though was interrupted by the spot from right in front of 'Hamazura' sparking suddenly as electricity jumped out from whatever it was that he had done. 'Hamazura' though merely placed a hand on Hamazura's shoulder before reaching over and grabbing the seatbelt that was for Hamazura's seat.

"You have GOT to be k-"

"Safety first."

'Hamazura' let out those words as he immediately pressed down on the accelerator, the sports car's tyres screaming at the sudden increase in speed from a stationary position as it pulled out from the curb and onto the road as cars honked and blared their horns.

Hamazura's screams though could be heard in the background as the car disappeared into the distance leaving the Accelerators and Kamijous staring at the retreating car with a pained look on their faces.

"I'm going to have to fucking clear this up aren't I hero?"

"W-Well your help would be extremely welcom…..Wait, what is your double doing?"

Kamijou asked his question as the Kamijous were on the floor and turned their head towards where 'Accelerator' was, seeing that he had reached a crossroads whose light had turned red and was slowly leading an elderly lady across the road slowly.

Accelerator froze as he looked at it and merely clicked his tongue, stomping over towards where 'Accelerator' was as he finished leading the old lady across the road as he grabbed his double's hand.

"You. Me. Air. Now." He spat out as 'Accelerator' seemed to look towards him with a frightened look in his eyes.

"H-Hang on now. I'm sure that Hamazura-kun is going to be fine. I can tell you right now-"

"JUST DO IT."

Accelerator leaned forward and spat those words into the face of his double as the boy timidly nodded and pressed his own choker as Accelerator did the same as they both leaped up into the air.

Tornado wings appeared from behind the both of them as they raced through the air, gusting up a large wind that hit those on the sidewalks of where they were flying as people cried out in shock as they were hit by the wind.

Skirts were raised and for the most part, dust got in most people's eyes from the speed that they were travelling as screeching tyres could be heard in the distance as the Accelerator s chased the Hamazuras through the City's roads.

And in the face of that very fact, Kamijou could only deadpan as he lay on the ground with his double as well.

"This is partially your fault." He said towards his red haired double.

"I'd like to actually try and address the fact that there are two Imagine Breakers in the same spatial plane. Do you think the world is going to end soon as a result?"

"Stop asking questions that clearly other people would think too much into! The theories that would be raised from such would destroy the world in itself!" Kamijou yelled out towards 'Kamijou' as he let go of him as the two of them sat on the sidewalk's curb where the sports car had once been.

Kamijou sighed and held his head in his hands before standing up and looking towards where the Hamazuras and Accelerators had headed off.

"You're going to head towards them aren't you?" asked 'Kamijou' with a grin.

"I assume that you're a good runner as well?"

"How else do you think I juggle my harem?"

"…There are numerous things that I want to say about that." Kamijou said that in a whimpering tone but he focused on the issue at hand and held out his own hand towards the boy on the ground.

'Kamijou' grinned and took it as he was lifted up and looked in the direction in which the other copies and their Originals had headed off in.

"Well, you know it was like I said. This really can't get any worse." remarked 'Kamijou' with a light heartened tone as Kamijou punched him in the face upon instinct.

"What did I say about that!? I'm telling you that if you keep on saying those types of things that you're going to raise death flags that will never cease! So take t-"

"Touma?"

Kamijou instantly jumped at the voice that came from behind him as he turned around in order to explain towards the person that the voice had come from. He only knew one person that held that high pitched voice however when he turned around to the entrance of the park, he felt his stomach drop.

With her black habit that was lined with a light yellow that was bordering on gold that matched the colour of her hair, the green eyes of the person in front of Kamijou and 'Kamijou' looked in confusion towards the both of them on the ground. Her clothes underneath her habit were red as those green eyes looked analytically at the situation in order to try and analyse it fully.

Confusion though was evident in those green eyes however it was Kamijou that spoke up with a trembling voice towards the person in front of him.

"I….Index?"

"Touma! There you are! I was looking all…..over for…..you…."

The exact same high pitched voice came from the side as both Kamijous and 'Index' turned their heads and it was now that the double's eyes went wide towards the person that approached.

With her white habit and silver hair that seemed in complete contrast to what the double was like, Index stopped in her running towards Kamijou and looked towards her double and then towards 'Kamijou'.

"I think we should have gone back and not left that portal open…" 'Kamijou said those words sheepishly as the Indexs looked at each other with those analytical gazes. Kamijou though could not come up with a witty retort though as he merely looked up into the sky.

In his gaze two figures flying with black wings zoomed past him as from behind him the sound of one boy laughing and another screaming in the exact same voice came and went in a second with the roar of a sports car.

Kamijou Touma could only sigh.

"Such misfortune."

Now the question was, how were they supposed to get out of this?!

* * *

**And with the appearance of the Mirror Index (or Dark Index whichever), that is the end!**

**This one was really tricky to get down but when it all started to flow it seemed as though it started to make sense. It was fairly short so I guess that difficulty really shows so how did you like it?**

**I had no idea what to expect when I started so I guess the theme here was 'desire' and 'mirror'. For the Kamijous, Accelerators and Hamazuras and perhaps even the Indexs, their doubles were what represented something that they longed for yet did not have or at the least could have.**

**Mirror Touma with his harem, Mirror Shiage with his connection with ITEM and Mirror Accelerator with his family, all of these things were things that to an extent the characters we already know want. So I wanted to show this in a way that was somewhat funny in how the characters would meet their doubles if at all. Although an interesting way to think about this would be why would Index be jealous of her Mirror Index? I left a hint….**

**But for the most part, I guess this was all really fun and games with maybe insight into characters and just humorous effect for the most part. There's not really much to say and I hope FreakFactor that I pleased you with this fulfilment of the request.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**My favourite part in this was perhaps 'Touma' trolling Touma with the 'you' and 'me'. I can just imagine Touma freaking out over how it would all work out in his head when it was explained to him.**


	22. The Possible Futures Kaleidoscope

**For those of you that have stuck with me this far, thank you.**

**For those of you that just started, I welcome you to this chapter.**

**I guess this is somewhat weird hearing this in the 22nd chapter. But I guess for the most part it has been this that is the most surprising. I never actually thought that it would ever reach this far with a couple of one-shots that I did when my USB was on the fritz. As I put them up I saw that many enjoyed them as they asked for more and thus BTL was born.**

**So for those of you that read this for a look for something new, I hope that this has been something of a different pacing than my main project ACUL0 and that you enjoy these nonetheless.**

**But good grief, the response to the last chapter was more than expected. I just glad that everyone enjoyed it but the chances of there being another part for that….you'll have to wait for a while but it was definitely surprising to see so many people enjoy it. Note though, that if you made a request, I won't answer it the usual Q &amp; A but you can at least know that I have considered it and am doing something about it, unless a note in this section of the story says otherwise.**

**As for those that have already requested before and made another (such as Agent Nine with your request and sort of KurobaraIto – is there a female Shinobu in the alternative timeline of ZW 9!? We'll have to see) you'll have to wait a bit as there are people that haven't requested before asking for something. Not to mention that there are the original stories that come up like this so I hope you can understand the wait in responding to second requests.**

**Yet it seems as though putting the Heroes in different situations seems to be something that everyone enjoys. I wonder what would happen if I had Touma do the usual 'transported to another world when he dies' storyline that many novels and manga have done before? Might be another interesting BTL original project.**

**But first let us begin with the inspiration for this original story. This was born when a friend of mine sent me a picture of both Touma and Index with a small caption saying how they 'grew up' with the bottom picture being that of Kiritsugu and Irisviel from Fate/Zero and my head just explode with ideas. This is just one of them however if you want to see more, I am always open to suggestions, like last chapter.**

**And with that note though I just want to follow up with the usual thanks. Thanks to me beta reader PokeRescue18. He and I have been through a lot so I really want to thank him for his work.**

**And also to you the reader. I realise that there is a fairly large barrier with my works when it comes to reading because of their length however I hope that you will continue to stick with me through thick and thin as things progress. So thank you so much for reading this.**

**And from me, now that you know where the idea of this came from, I hope that you do what I always wish for when I write these.**

**Enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

A Possible But Unlikely Future. _Events_Unforeseen:_10_Point_Egypt_.

The lone motorboat on the water drifted slowly, cutting through the water silently. The silence would have been deafening save for the heavy panting that broke through the silent area like a knife, being the only thing that suggested any life on the water as the banks and the city beyond it were devoid of life, much like the water that the boat was on.

Lying against the engine, laying his body close to the floor of the boat as much as possible with his hand on the protruding wooden beam that allowed him to control the rudder, one man laid. He was the source of the heavy breathing as he slowly rose his head to look above the edges of the boat and to scan his surroundings.

Upon seeing nothing though, he did not sit up, instead only resting back down and commencing the heavy breathing once more.

A meow filled the air as the man looked towards the animal that made the noise and grimaced although managed to break his face into a stupid grin.

"This is all your fault. If I had known picking you up so long ago would turn into this, I seriously would have reconsidered it you damn calico."

The man spoke in a quiet voice as he gave himself the once over to assess the amount and seriousness of the damage he had sustained.

His jeans were ripped in numerous places, small spikes of wood poking from them, large enough to cause pain but small enough that he couldn't take them out without causing the holes that the spikes of wood were in to become larger. His shirt was in a similar state, ripped in numerous places to show his average build although his arms clearly had the worst of it. Unlike his lean legs, they were cut in numerous places and the blood that streamed down them dripped onto the bottom of the motorboat.

However the worst of it would have had to have been his face.

Blood streamed from his left temple and obscured his already blurry vision in his left eye which he tried to wipe away with his right hand which trembled slightly however the man got the trembling to not be as serious as it had been from months ago. A deep gash across his face cut through his right cheek and caused blood to flow into his mouth which he spat into the water below.

He touched his face with his right hand merely for one reason, as those that knew him would have known.

It was to erase the effects of any magic that had managed to get inside the wounds on his face.

Luckily, he felt that nothing was negated from contact with his right hand to any of the wounds and he sighed with relief, using that same hand to run it through his spiky hair, something that he had maintained all of these years in order to at least give some sort of recollection and reminiscence of his younger days where it had been a hassle to maintain with gel.

It still was a hassle however the habit of waking up and applying the gel had become so infused into his daily routine that he had always seen others smile when he did it with them looking.

And as the man lay inside the boat and thought about his next move, a sudden realisation came over him.

He, Kamijou Touma, had not changed at all.

It was surprising to be honest. Although he physically changed, what drove him and what he took action for had not changed since he had been 'born' so long ago in his home of Academy City.

But the physical change was something that was definitely noticeable. For one, he had gotten taller. It was by a few centimetres but that, added with the muscles that were slightly coming from the arms and legs made it seem to any bystander that he was merely an average guy that had the opportunity to work out but rarely took it.

His face had become more defined. According to many people (this was mainly from a female source though), his face had become more set, weathered. It seemed as though depending on his expression he could appear to be the happiest or the saddest man on Earth however for the sake of others, he tried to maintain the former as much as he could.

But in truth, he felt, something that many other people corroborated; he had not changed at all.

Despite people around him getting stronger, facing trials and challenges that dug into the heart of despair, he had always stood by them and forced their way forward with nothing more than a power in his right hand and his own body and soul pushing him forward.

It had seemed that amid everything, his allies had taken that giant step forward with Kamijou electing to stay behind, to help others to do the same as them; to maintain their smiles, whatever the cost.

It had been 10 years since he had been born in Academy City and in that time, it had seemed that the first year of chaos he had known was merely the tip of the iceberg when it came to the world's chaos surrounding Magic and Science.

There was the Treaty of the Branched Worlds 9 years ago.

There was the Human Evolution Fault 8 years ago.

There was the Inner Awakening 7 years ago.

There was the Sacrifice of Hearts 6 years ago.

There was the Grimoire Baby 5 years ago.

There was the Overthrow of the Gods 4 years ago.

There was the Esper Metamorphosis 3 years ago.

There was the Sinking of the World 2 years ago.

And last year only…..there had been the Day the World Had Died.

Memories of that Day filed Kamijou's head and he winced, pressing his hand against his head in order to force out the thoughts. What was lost though was not the thoughts within his head but all feeling in his right side as he collapsed to the side and spat out the blood that was coming from his mouth.

"C-Come on…! Not now! Why now?!"

Kamijou cursed himself as he punched his right side with his left fist, managing to get some feeling into it before he used that same left hand to pull the wooden beam connected to the rudder towards himself so that the boat could flow in a straight line though the body of water he was on.

He had known that it was risky to commence the operation, and he had known the consequences but at the end of the day, when it came down to it, there was no other thing that Kamijou Touma would have done except for what he had done only 3 months ago.

Currently, although he looked fine, in the inside of his head, it was hardly the case. After all, the hemispherectomy where he had had the left half of his brain removed to serve as an external server point for the Sisters was something that he had volunteered to do.

Only he, Heaven Canceller and the Sisters knew that the only reason the Sisters were alive right now was because of what he had done, as well as being the only people to know what he had done. Kamijou wanted to keep it that way simply because he knew the reaction that the others would have if they knew of his choice.

Certainly, while mostly everyone was pleased with the resolution despite not knowing how it came around, having numerous Misaka clones come up and cry into his chest and apologise profusely at the pain he had suffered meant that he had gone through quite a few shirts with the tears of the clones. He had reassured them however they had had none of it, pledging once again their bodies and souls to him.

But then he had disappeared, gone into hiding as he had been doing for the past year.

He sighed though, feeling returning to his right side as he sat up and breathed more calmly now, looking across the banks of the water body he was on and to the city beyond it.

The River Nile.

He had come here for one reason however the magician that had asked him to come had instead been captured by her former allies who had wanted to know why she had escaped, meaning that it was all up to him now.

But what exactly did that magician expect?

Sure, word of his actions got around however Kamijou never placed too much emphasis upon what those actions meant for the future, only looking towards the here and now. As he had aged, those expectations were no longer placed upon the normal high school boy. Instead, those expectations and hopes were placed upon nothing more than a normal businessman, who ran a small bakery in Academy City with a tendency towards misfortune (still).

Although that was his occupation, it seemed as though many people had taken a liking to him in the past few years. He had never expected trouble but prepared for it accordingly, buying an abandoned hotel in District 7 with what minor funds he could muster before renovating it and using it for accommodation for anyone that was in need, such as for the Child Errors that occupied the City.

Despite that being his original plan for the renovated hotel/bakery, the fact that it was now the Headquarters of Necessarius and the Board of Directors of Academy City as well as having a small bakery on the ground floor said a lot about what Kamijou had been through in the past few years.

It seemed to him though that he spent more time outside than on the inside running his bakery. He had trusted employees, but as the owner he should have been there helping them with the business.

Yet as those employees knew, as well as the residents of the hotel temporary, recurring and permanent, the moment that someone walked through the doors of the hotel with any problem, the one that would jump into the fray would be Kamijou Touma.

Even if someone walked in without asking for help, or without a problem, the stay that they had in that hotel always opened their hearts and minds towards a greater venture that they could achieve. They left a different person from when they arrived and it was the same for everyone, lifted of a burden that they had carried.

Most of his trusted friends and allies he had acquired over the years had found themselves as residents of the hotel with their own private rooms and constant expansion of the hotel meant that there were always more people staying with problems and thus more reasons for Kamijou to leave.

Which led to this current situation.

Kamijou brought out the cell phone in his pocket, something that was constantly being renewed due to the constant incidents he still found himself in, and groaned as he looked at the display.

The screen was cracked, and it was clear that some of the buttons were not going to be working any time soon. Still he opened his contacts list and found the number he was looking for; Hotel Reception or where he knew to be Index's room where she served as an advisor for people who found themselves in trouble in these situations, a number he had on speed dial as well as other people who had come accustomed to finding themselves in these incidents in their everyday life, either by accident or on purpose – a detour from their original jobs.

He hadn't contacted them since last year (save for the incident with the Sisters) because of the Day the World Had Died but he had no time to waste. Egypt was sitting on a powder keg and he needed to figure out how he was going to solve this. And to do that, to make sure that everyone had their smiles, he was going to use the most of what he had at his disposal.

In truth, in that one thought, it was obvious to anyone. In the past 10 years, the unwavering soul and heart of Kamijou Touma had not changed.

He pressed the call button and grunted as he leaned against the wall of the boat, bringing that familiar calico cat Sphynx closer as he looked over the walls of the boat.

The cat meowed, a slightly rusty sound however that was to be expected given the cat's age. Grey furs covered the cat here and there along with a still lively attitude in the interior as the cat scratched at Kamijou's chest and peed on his shirt.

Kamijou deadpanned and stared straight at the cat who merely looked at him with cute eyes as if to say "What? Bear with it mere peasant mortal."

"Such misfortune…" Kamijou complained with his childish catchphrase in a deep voice as he heard the phone connect.

"Hello? You have reached Reception at the Kamijou Hotel. This is Index speaking. How may I help you?"

Why did they call it that? The hotel wasn't called that. Could it kill them to at least stick with the naming scheme of the actual hotel!? While it seemed that Index had gotten better with technology over the years, there were still things he had to complain about!

He shook his head and made a mental note for it later and spoke into the phone.

"It's me."

On the other end, he could almost hear Index's breath catch in her mouth and her heart break at the mere sound of his voice. He felt terrible however he had to push forward. After this, he would definitely return and apologise to everyone for what he had done.

But to do that….he needed to finish this first.

"T…Touma?" The voice that came out was weak and frail and the sound of working that had happened on the other end completely froze.

"Yeah…it's me." For some reason, he couldn't find anything to say right now apart from those words as Index spoke into the phone, her voice wavering as she did so.

"I….We….We didn't know. You never said anything about it. I had guessed but after seeing only one of many, I didn't know what to say. And then you disappeared with that suffering on your back. Why didn't you say anything Touma? You never cried, you never despaired, you only had the occasional nightmare and then you would smile and tell me it was alright. But I saw. Even if it was only one, I saw that hell."

Index's voice calmed the man as Kamijou grunted; only thinking of one thing to say in this situation.

"Which world did you see? _Which world that Othinus created to break me was transmitted to you and you experienced_? I don't know about the others."

"From what I heard Touma, I got one of the more mild ones. But even so….a world where you were killed by your own parents…." Index trailed off as she fell silent as Kamijou rubbed his eyes with his hands, finding himself tearing up.

He had never wished for it, the events of last year.

Yet it had happened, where one of the worlds in his fractured memory that Othinus had created to break him had transmitted to the 8.1 billion people in the world. That was 8.1 billion hells transmitted to each and every person, one hell for each person, in a mere second. And in that second, they experienced the pain, suffering and hell that he had endured for only one of those worlds.

It was ironic though, mainly because only he and Othinus knew that there were plenty more where that came from. 8.1 billion hells was less than 1% of what he had suffered however the both of them had stayed silent, Kamijou through cutting off ties for the past year and Othinus….well he knew that she would never speak a word and would never have anyone force her to say it.

They had both been through much in the past 10 years.

Kamijou opened his mouth and found himself doing the only thing that he had wanted to do to each and every single person in the world for so long.

"I'm sorry."

Bitter tears ran down his mouth and onto the calico cat on his lap.

"I'm so sorry. I…never wanted it to turn out the way it did. I tried but…8.1_ billion hells_. I'd forgotten but now those memories return to me in my sleep. And I never wanted you or anyone to know about them. So I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you suffered. I'm sorry that you had to live through that."

He clenched his teeth and punched the side of the boat; a slight wobbling coming through as sobbing came through the phone on the other side.

"Touma, I-"

"No, this can't be done over the phone. I've hardly seen anyone in the past year and there's nothing I can do but apologise in person. I have no right to say an apology through a medium such as this."

"No one left the Hotel, Touma. Everyone who was here on the Day is still here. They do their work in their rooms and they are all waiting for your return. We all believed and many people who were outside on the Day have come and lived here since it happened, waiting for you."

Kamijou was silent, feeling nothing but regret and a slow sorrow filling him as he listened to what Index was telling him. He had left and basically abandoned those that had trusted him. What did that suggest for what he thought of their connections?

In bringing pain to the entire world, had he also brought more pain than was necessary to his own personal one?

"I'll come back. I swear." Kamijou made that vow, not only to Index but also to himself and to everyone that he had wronged by disappearing as he had. He had no right to do so yet he had placed what he had felt were his own feelings above those of everyone else.

He had made assumptions about those strong people and had stuck to them without giving them a second chance. When he had undergone his surgery for the Sisters, he had done so in the middle of an incident with them meaning that no one had time to stop and ask him or confront him about what he had done.

And after it was over, he had left.

But that was all to come to an end.

Kamijou swore to himself that he would make things right but in order to do that, he had to finish things in Egypt first. He had no right to say this but there was no way that he was going to abandon the people that were suffering here simply because of his own mistakes. He had to rectify them himself, as well as sticking true to what he wanted.

And what he wanted to do now was save the people of Egypt and the magician that had brought him here.

"First things first though Index. I need your help."

"Where are right now? I've opened up a link with most people in the field who are facing crises of either a magical or scientific nature so tell me where you are and I'll see who is closest to you." There was typing on the other end with a slight sniffing and Kamijou made silent thanks in his heart to the fact that Index had gotten somewhat capable with technology.

He didn't know what to think of the fact that he was interrupting someone else's normal life in order to involve them in an incident that he himself had been dragged into but he made sure to note that he would forever be in that person's debt for their actions if they came here.

"I'm on the Nile. My co-ordinates are…." Kamijou checked the GPS on his phone and relayed it back to the silent Index. "I'm really close to Cairo. I didn't realise it." He noted after he did so.

Kamijou looked over the edge of the boat he was on, associating the city that was beyond the banks of the river to Cairo however the sound of Index on the other end was a silent voice, trembling slightly in a different way from before.

"Touma…those co-ordinates are you sure about them?"

"I've gone downstream a few centimetres now but yeah." Kamijou said confirming as he frowned. The silence of the city was unnatural, especially for Cairo, giving him a strange chill. What was left of his brain let off warning signals from all directions as he let out the very basic question that he felt was extremely important to ask.

"Index….what the hell is happening in Cairo right now? What have I gotten myself caught up in?"

"What in the world are you doing in Cairo right now!? Don't you ever think about reading the news at all?!"

"I do not like where this is going so just spit it out!"

"They evacuated the city due to the magicians that overtook the country weeks ago! Talks have just ended and a laser bombardment is being prepared by the Americans as we speak! Kazari is leading the targeting using the CIA's software and they are using the laser technology that Short Hair, you and I managed to get from Quenser's world using the Treaty of Branched Worlds 4 years ago!" Index cried on the other end as Kamijou went entirely pale.

"Wait, are you telling me that that laser beam main cannon we got a while back was equipped to a satellite!? Actually, there's a reactor powerful enough to power it up in space?! What the hell did we give them in return? Wait, no scratch that, stop the bombardment! There are people living here, even if they did take control of the country!"

"I'd have to go through the proper lines but they're already reporting that the laser is doing a sweep right now!" Index said.

Kamijou twitched and looked up into the blue sky that was overhead, seeing the calm clouds that were above. His entire body let out a scream as he looked up, noting that possibly up there right now there was a main cannon that would be equipped to one of those hellish Objects pointing right down at him from space.

Even though it was likely the thing would lose power by breaking up in the atmosphere and distorting the light, if it was focused using the right methods, then it would be dangerous all the same.

His right hand was just as he was; unchanged despite the experiences that the both of them had been through. It could still only negate things within the confines of his right hand and it needed contact in order to allow for the negation.

He did not have the powers of a Youkai, to be immune to physical attacks thus twisting the laws of physics. Although Jinnai Shinobu was an Ambassador for his world related to Youkai (his assistance greatly appreciated when the White Queen had taken control of her own Unexplored summoning and managed to inundate numerous worlds with gods) right now, he was celebrating his 10th anniversary with his wife meaning that Kamijou had no intention on calling on him for his assistance to find a way to protect the city and himself.

He did not have a way to reach into the upper reaches of space using only a motorboat.

Which meant that there was no way to avoid it.

Of course there was no rule stating that the laser would manage to reach him right now but given his experience with misfortune and his proximity to Cairo….

"Run Touma…" The voice on the phone came through after he had already started moving, pocketing the phone.

"Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!"

Kamijou, with Sphynx in hand leaped off the side of the motorboat as something flashed in the sky. Even with his eyes closed and his hand over Sphynx's eyes, he still felt white shine through the darkness that was there. His retinas felt as though they burned and Sphynx meowed in displeasure as a roar filled his ears.

Heat flashed against his skin and he cried out from the intensity of it, trying to move in the water which was changing into a gaseous state from the intensity of the heat. Still Kamijou moved his wounded limbs, grabbing onto the bank of the river and climbing up over it. He fumbled with his hands in order to try and find out where he was-

Just as the motorboat exploded, the explosion throwing Kamijou forward where his head collided with a hard surface. He fell to the ground, blood streaming into his mouth once again as he struggled to get up. Numerous incidents over the years had meant that his body had gained the ability to withstand a lot of punishment but still, his core wavered and he struggled to stand.

A ringing in his ears and a burning in his eyes, Kamijou slowly opened them, the sight of what he had managed to avoid before him as he found himself facing the Nile.

The water level had dropped to at least half.

The remains of the motorboat were nothing more than a smoky remain but that was the least of the damage. The city beyond that had suffered a laser bombardment was in far worse repair.

Fires had broken out among some of the buildings, rubble fell to the ground and that was only for the buildings that were left standing. Most of them were nothing but dust, reduced to mere pebbles as the buildings were instantly destroyed from the laser beam main cannon.

(Judging by the destruction and from memory, that main cannon we got 4 years ago…was from the Third Generation!? That lying bastard Heivia said that they never managed to perfectly replicate that rumoured Broad Sky Saber Mark Third!)

Kamijou's hand trembled as he punched himself in the side as he tried to find his phone however it was not in his pocket where he had placed it.

Voices came from the empty street as Kamijou turned and tried to find where they came from, noting that his phone had been thrown in the blast near of the buildings that had escaped damage as he slowly walked over and picked up the phone.

"Touma? Touma!? Answer me Touma!"

"I'm…good. I'm…alive. But that laser bombardment! What the hell are the Americans thinking? And why is Uiharu supporting this?"

"Touma…you've been away for the past year so you wouldn't know. The magicians took hostages. In order to make sure that no one got in their way, they managed to capture someone from one of the major powers that exist in this world." replied Index, her tone solemn and relieved as she relayed the information but glad that Touma was alive.

"Who? The Dawn-Coloured Sunlight? GROUP? It can't be from the other worlds, only those people that had been there before like you, Mikoto, Othinus and I know of the precise method to get there. From what group did they kidnap?" Kamijou's voice was desperate as he tried to get as much information as he could.

"Yours, Touma."

Kamijou froze, trying to get his head around what Index had just told him.

"Mine? Wh-what in the world are you talking about? I run a bakery and that's it! While the hotel is merely an extension, I wouldn't go as far as to say I-"

"They managed to capture someone from the Kamijou Faction. As far as the world is concerned Touma the people and power that you have gathered around you is enough to make even the Americans think twice about angering you and anyone in the group. But ever since the Day and your disappearance we've hardly been what we used to. Thus they took hostages of the formerly powerful 'Kamijou Faction' to show their power. Kazari didn't like that one bit so she negotiated with the Americans to give her permission to start the bombardment that she needed."

Kamijou was silent and stopped moving as anger boiled up inside of him.

"Why?"

His voice was low and clearly brimming to the edge with malice as Index on the other side seemed to cower away from the phone in response to the anger that Kamijou was showing.

"Why…what Touma?"

"You damn idiots! I keep on telling that there is no such thing as the Kamijou Faction! I don't care who you associate with or what group you think of joining but a group that is centred around me does not exist! If you guys keep on building up these sorts of achievements overtime and associate them with a group, of course something like this is going to happen. Shit!"

Kamijou kicked the nearest building and stubbed his toe, holding back a cry of pain as he leaned against the building. He slid to the ground, wincing as he did so as he let Sphynx drop to his side, cradling his head with his hands.

No matter how many times he told them, they always ignored him. Kamijou himself was aware of the repercussions of his actions and how other people had also gotten involved. Yet if the world started to think that those accomplishments were associated with a group rather than a singular person then perhaps people that wanted revenge for any actions would target the members of the group rather than that single person.

People who had merely joined in conflicts to bring about a solution would have their normal lives destroyed as they were targeted merely because they were a part of that group.

Of course, this was the worst case scenario however ignoring such a case would surely bring about misfortune, something that Kamijou was accustomed to. Thus in order to prevent anything like that from happening, no matter how small the chances, he had always denied the existence of the group known as the 'Kamijou Faction'.

Besides, such a thing implied that he was the leader and he hardly saw himself as someone that people should follow into battle merely because he called them. He never had wanted anything like that yet the people around him had created such a situation.

"I thought this would happen." Kamijou's voice was soft as he lamented on the point at hand. Someone he knew had been taken hostage because they were associated with the group that he was supposedly the leader of.

Regardless of the fact that he had that responsibility to fix things because he was this so-called leader, at the end of the day, could it not be said that the reason this had happened was because he had disappeared for the past year?

If he had been by the side of the person who had been abducted, would this have even happened in the first place?

"Touma, it's not your fault. We all wanted to – " Index started to reassure the man however Kamijou cut her off by asking one question.

"Who is it? Who was captured?" His question was short and simple, something that Index responded to immediately. If anything, she knew that the man would surely be twisting his heart as he placed the blame upon himself for what had happened despite anything that she would say.

But she also knew that despite the pain that he was suffering and had suffered there was still one thing that he had wanted to do above all else, a goal that he had always stuck to despite the hells he had faced.

The simple wish of everyone making it back smiling.

So in order to make sure that that man that was suffering right now had the chance to fulfil that wish, Index could only do one thing. And she did so as she answered honestly.

"It was Ruiko. Upon hearing that Cairo was being evacuated, she made her way over the Mediterranean from Athens. She was the first one there and was only captured around 2 days ago. Using the nanomachines that Shiage put into her before she left, Kazari was able to track her down. Given the context of the scenario, it was obvious that the worst had happened so she moved fast." Index explained.

Kamijou rose an eyebrow at that as numerous questions filled his mind. What the hell was Saten doing in Athens? Last he heard, she was helping Mikoto and Accelerator with the problem with the Sisters, something that he had solved. He knew that Hamazura kept the policy of injecting nanomachines into people as they left Academy City as the new General Superintendent of Academy City but given the timing of when Saten had been captured and when Uiharu had been authorised to fire the laser….

"Wait, 2 days? That's faster than fast. What about all of the political loopholes that Roberto would have had to go through?" asked Kamijou.

"Even if you say that the Kamijou Faction doesn't exist Touma….there are definitely people that are willing to risk life, limb and political status to protect the members of it." replied Index as Kamijou groaned.

The President of the United States of America was a part of a group that's leader was supposedly nothing more than a business owner. That was going to go down well in the next election.

Kamijou had that sarcastic thought however grunted as he stood, facing the city that was beyond him. He picked up Sphynx and immediately broke into a run, heading towards the nearest building so that he could climb the roof and get a better vantage point.

"Forget everything then Index. Where's Saten's location?" he asked quickly as he kicked open a door, apologising silently to the owners that had evacuated and also wincing in pain from the impact, before racing up towards the roof to have a bird's eye view of Cairo.

"What are you even planning on doing Touma? You're the only one there right now and the group of magicians that captured Ruiko are beyond what you can do with just one right hand!"

"What am I going to do!? What do you think? This is my fault…if I had been with Saten even for a minute when this crisis had happened then there is a chance that she would never be in this mess! Do you even have to ask anymore Index!? Of course, I'm going to save her! And then I'm going to find these magicians and stop this entire chaos before it erupts into something else!"

Kamijou yelled those words into the phone as he looked across the city of Cairo in the distance, scanning for any signs of life as Index paused as she listened to his words on the phone.

Both of them said nothing, yet when Index spoke, the tone that she gave only told Kamijou that the girl….no, the woman on the other side of the phone was clearly smiling in response.

"It's good…..it's good to see you back Touma. We were all so worried after you left."

"We can focus on that later. I'll have to apologise personally to you and everyone else. …That's going to take some time but I'll be sure to bake you something fabulous when I return."

"I look forward to it. Although..." Index's voice softened and it was clear that her expression had soured based on the tone that she later used. "Your wives are rather upset. You know, particularly the Royal Family one. You've pissed her off real good when you forgot your anniversary. She was the embarrassment of the nation. Serves her right though."

Kamijou's eyes went wide as he suddenly started sweating unnaturally. He gulped and spoke into the phone in a wavering voice.

"H-How mad was Carissa?"

"She threatened to bring out the guillotine and execute you in public."

"A-And you didn't do anything to stop her I'm assuming!? B-Besides what's up with your tone! You and I both know that that was a marriage that clearly had no romantic feelings attached to it on either side, similar to all my other ones and if we hadn't done it then-"

"Yes, yes, I remember the details Touma. I was there. Although it seems that nothing has changed regarding your denseness…" Index basically whispered the last part, leaving Kamijou in wonder at what in the world she had said as he didn't hear her as Index typed on the other side.

"Touma, Ruiko's location is approximately 1 kilometre ahead of you and she's moving right to where you are. Probably after the laser bombardment, the magicians keeping her hostage panicked. I can't tell if there are any other people with her at the moment though!"

Kamijou though had already begun moving, leaping from the rooftop where he was onto the nearest one to his left, wincing as he braced himself for the roll. Even though he did so the stress on his body due to the roll caused pain to fill his body but he ignored it, gritted his teeth and continued his journey through the city.

"Is there anyone else that is near where I am? I hardly think that Saten was the only one that wanted to help out with this." asked Kamijou as he made another leap onto a lower building as he rolled once more.

"Let me check…" More typing filled the other end of the phone as Index whispered underneath her breath. "Estelle and Frenda are near where you are right now as Estelle was going through the processes of fine tuning Frenda as to return her original personality. Further away… Kaori is heading towards where you are right now but given location and speed, Estelle will likely reach there first. Short Hair on the other hand is still in the Mediterranean."

"A Saint, Necromancer and Level 5!? Just what is this group of magicians if those three were so close to here?" asked Kamijou rhetorically as he leaped from the building that he was on to a drainpipe that was leading to the ground and slid down it, silently wondering why Index still called Mikoto that childish nickname as the same with Mikoto to Index. Sphynx cried out in protest but the old cat showed no signs of wanting to let go as Kamijou slid down the pipe.

"Wait, Touma was that Sphynx!? What are you doing with him?" asked Index in sudden concern that made Kamijou truly wonder if right now she was more worried about the cat or him.

"I was asked by a magician to come to Cairo in the first place to check out the Great Sphinx of Giza. It turns out that Nephthys might have had a greater impact upon this calico than we originally thought so we were aiming towards breaking the link that existed between Nephthys's origins and Sphynx here!" Kamijou gave the quick version as he rounded the corner where he was.

"Wait, what? Touma even in my grimoires, the chance of Nephthys being-"

"I'm not giving up on that! With nothing but her heart in a jar, there's got to be a way to save her!" Kamijou shouted back into the phone as Index once more fell silent.

"Touma, I'm going to be giving you quite the lecture when you get back." Index said simply after a small silence. "Keep the phone open though, chances are my Sheol Fear and Spell Intercept will be able to pass through the technological medium. I've already analysed the distorted mana through the phone."

Kamijou still didn't understand how the hell she could do that ever since she had gotten a grip on technology in the first place however the smile that appeared on his own face after all this time truly showed how he felt about the situation at hand.

"That lecture…I look forward to it when I get back Index." He said.

"I will too. I've missed you. That and your constant 'Such misfortune' cries. Haven't you gotten over them yet?" she asked with a laugh as Kamijou joined her.

"Somehow I haven't. That and one other thing as you can probably guess."

"What? Are you going to start by saying something like, 'If these magicians think they can get away with what they have done to this city, its people and Ruiko, then…'" Index waited patiently for what was to come as Kamijou finished her sentence for her.

"Yeah. Then I'll destroy that illusion of theirs."

Kamijou raced onto the open street from behind the building he was near, turning his head around him to try and determine where he was right now however stopped as he spotted numerous people watching him.

One of them, a black haired woman's eyes went wide before the edges of them started to fill with tears as she collapsed to her knees, trembling slightly as she watched the man before her. She was hand cuffed yet she still managed to raise her hand and wave it towards the man, smiling slightly as hope filled her eyes and happiness; her soul.

Kamijou grinned in response and gripped the phone that he held in one hand hard, angling his body so that he could carry Sphynx a bit better.

He and the girl on the other end of the phone spoke at the exact same time, saying the exact same thing which not only showed the connection that existed between them but just how forged that connection was.

It was something that would not be lost no matter how many times either party threatened it.

It was something that both realised the importance of and would always want to go back to it.

It was something that was 10 years in the making and would always remain the same no matter how much either of those individuals changed.

And perhaps it was also something that was what made the two of them such a dynamic team in the face of those ridiculous odds.

"I'm counting on you then Index."

"I'm counting on you then Touma."

Despite everything that they had gone through, those words only made it seem as though nothing had changed for the both of them over the 10 years.

They were no longer the normal high school boy and the grimoire library that was supposedly helpless. They had moved from those titles and ascended into something else.

But at their core, it seemed as though changing someone was harder than it seemed.

Because once again, that misfortune filled spiky haired individual charged onto the battlefield with that ever faithful nun by his side.

* * *

**And thus, we reach the end.**

**In terms of an alternate future, what did you think? The thing that I wanted to get across was that despite everything that has happened to the characters over the 10 years that exist between this story and the canon, the characters that are involved, while they have EVOLVED, at their core they still remain the same characters we have come to know and love.**

**Yet it's clear that as time has passed the amount of incidents that they have become a part of and the moving nature of their lives has clearly had an impact! It might be interesting to see where other characters might stand in this make-believe timeline that I have set but in the end, it's just a possible future and no indication of what might happen at the end of the story in the canon for Kamachi.**

**But what did you think? Was it believable? Did you feel the hurt that the characters felt and the interest that came from the numerous incident names that have no explanation yet? I wanted to sort of give a feeling as though the incident names carried weight to them despite us not knowing what they were and thus served as important.**

**As a whole though, if you imagined Kiritsugu that's a bit nicer and Irisviel that's perhaps doesn't have the man's kid, you would end up with Touma and Index in this setting. So, how did you think it was managed? Feedback is nice but in the end, I sort of wanted to focus on the two's relationship and how they've always got each other's back despite what has happened and the progression of things. It might be better for a different BTL story though but this is what we ended up with…for now.**

**There were plenty of name drops though regarding things that have or can happen so I hope that you enjoyed them.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please .**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**I added in a pointless laser scene and an unnecessary surgery for Touma maybe to show just how much he hasn't changed when it comes to his incidents and how he deals with them. And although we never got a good look at Index as to how she has changed physically over the years, perhaps it might be interesting to see how she too has aged, like Touma…..**


	23. The Influence of Ideals

**And here we once again take the stage with these one-shots.**

**I'll endeavour to keep these short; I honestly try but sometimes I think that maybe you guys want to know a bit more about how I make these sort of things. Personally, it always interests me what goes on in the mind of the writer for these so maybe the long beginning and endings here are to suit my own taste?**

**It's hard to say.**

**However once again, I'll begin with fulfilling a request, this one coming from Guest (really you guys should try and name each other in some different way) who asked:**

Doesn't have to happen right now, but a chapter on Tatsugami Otohime (the "Youngest Princess Of the Dragon King/God") might be fun - with speculation as to whether one day her brotherly infatuation with Touma onii-chan (as depicted in light novel and anime to date) elevates to fully promote her to the status of "another member of the Kamijou Harem".

**It's hard to say what this will be like; the only thing that I hope is that you enjoy it for what this is worth. Hopefully I make the core of Otohime the same as in ACUL0 although with a few differences yet I think she'll be the same as always so don't be alarmed if she's a bit different here if you read ACUL0. After all, this is a different story and gives a different perspective each time of something that could be canon.**

**But here is the usual Q &amp; A:**

**whwsms: I DON'T KNOW IF THIS IS A SPIN OFF STORY! You sort of have BTL but these are just one-shots! Last chapter did feel a bit like a spin off and I have another idea for another chapter for it but that is it for now; there's nothing in writing yet. I hope though that you can read this and enjoy it nonetheless despite the fact that there is not really another part written down yet. PLEASE FORGIVE ME! Most people wanted another part, but it will have to wait as there are other requests and the like and most people I haven't gotten to in term sof their request….**

**malandy: I don't really have a 'timeline' per se but rather a rough idea of how those Yearly incidents last chapter would have gone.**

**flayjunior15: Yes, I remember you so don't worry. The works that were in the last chapter that were from Kamachi's other works were that of Heavy Object (referenced when mentioning the Broad Sky Saber, the laser, Quenser and Heivia), The Zashiki Warashi of Intellectual Village (referenced when mentioning Jinnai Shinobu and Youkai) and The Unexplored Summoning:/Blood-Sign (referenced when mentioning the White Queen and her summoning). Thank you also for your kind words.**

**But before I would like to begin, I would like to thank three people. The first is of course my beta reader PokeResuce18. Without his contribution towards my works, I would imagine that they never would have reached this far. So thank you for his contribution.**

**I'd also like to thank you the reader. For those that have yet to review, I encourage you to do so because it means I can put a name towards those special people that have viewed this. For those that have reviewed, favourited or are following this, you have my eternal gratitude.**

**And lastly towards the specific Guest who requested this. I hope that it was what you were looking for and thus, something you enjoy.**

**And for everyone else too: I hope you enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

Another Life, Another Place. _A_Similar_Normal_Middle_School_Student._

The footsteps ran down the hall as the trio held numerous cardboard boxes stacked on each other within their hands that they precariously tried to get balanced as they continued running through the halls of the school that they were students of.

"Wh-Why are we dragged into this as well?!"

"A friend in need is a friend indeed right…..Who are we even doing this for? I'm glad that we get out of mathematics but even geometry would be better than this!"

"Come on you two! We have to hurry! Stop being so slow!"

"You're just too fast Otohime!"

"You're just too fast Otohime!"

The three girls ran down the hallway with reluctance on two of their faces while the third bounded along with energy that was not found in the other two. People watched through their classroom windows at the dashing figures in the hall, both students and teachers raising knowing eyebrows and giving slight smiles to the girls that managed to make their way past as they caught their eye.

Of the three, it was the two tired girls at the back that truly wondered where the energy from their friend was located and also pondered on whether or not she would share her energy with them as well. It seemed unlikely though as the third girl raced forward, leaving those two girls to smile knowingly at each other.

In their summer uniforms, the girls Nitta Midori and Yonamine Akane struggled to keep up even though they felt that given the amount of times they had done this there was probably a greater level of tolerance than when they had first decided to take part in things like this.

Nitta's green coloured hair seemed to add colour to her blue eyes yet given her short stature that hair seemed to go down further than she liked meaning that a ponytail was the only way that she could manage to keep it up. Often mistaken for a primary school student for her child-like figure, it was the bane of her existence but somehow in the company of her two friends, it didn't seem to matter to her in the least.

As for Yonamine, her own red coloured hair shone furiously as she ran through the dull painted hallway. Whether it was because she was wearing contacts to match her hair colour or had died her hair to match her eye colour, her eyes were the exact same red as her hair, shining with that same ferocity. While her figure was lean and average, her eyes were something that seemed to intimidate many.

But once again, just like with Nitta, those physical characteristics that seemed to be the faults within those girls were ignored by their one friend that stopped in the middle of the hallway and pouted as she looked at her friends.

"Come on Midori-chan, Akane-chan! You're so slow!"

"We told you before you're just too fast!"

"We told you before you're just too fast!"

While Nitta and Yonamine made those remarks, their grinning faces truly seemed to show how much they were really enjoying the errands that they were made to do, even if they were opposed to them initially.

Tatsugami Otohime.

The Youngest Princess of the Dragon King with her brownish-purple hair and green eyes.

That was the person that had managed to befriend the both of them despite their own worries about their physical characteristics and break through the social barrier that had formed around the two of them because of their very appearance. She was the person that had held out her hand to lift them up when they were feeling down and personally they were truly grateful for that one friendship.

While there was a slight stigma related to Otohime herself due to her own issues, she had ignored all of that and befriended the two of them.

And it was that bright personality, the childish smile and energy that she always contained that truly made almost everyone that met her wonder in the back of their mind when they would meet again. Like a magnet, she seemed to pull others into her own world and always tried to make others the focus, but at the same time only made people realise the truly bright thing that was Otohime herself.

Yet her own childish personality, energy and enthusiasm were not the only things that seemed to bring people closer to her.

The boxes that she was carrying were a testament to that very thing that brought others closer to her.

"Hurry up!" She said with a smile as she stepped to the side without looking to head down a staircase. "If you don't then Aki-sensei is going to – waaaaaaaaaah!"

With a sudden shout of surprise, Otohime fell to the side, falling down the stairs that she had been trying to go down without looking. There was a crash as the items in the boxes she was carrying fell to the ground as both Nitta and Yonamine went wide eyed and raced over as fast as they could over to the staircase. They looked down to see the girl rubbing her head as she looked down helplessly at the strewn items.

"Otohime!"

"Otohime!"

The two of them both cried out towards their friend as the girl looked up at them with a look of wonder and stuck out her tongue in self-derision.

"Heh heh. Whoops. Sorry about that you two. I guess I should have watched where I was going." Otohime stood up slowly as she looked at the fallen items with a frown on her face as she crossed her arms, trying to figure out how she was going to collect everything together.

"Damn right you should have!" Nitta said as she descended the staircase.

"What do you think you're doing Otohime? Don't you think that, as a maiden and young girl, you should at least take care of your body in a better way?" Yonamine asked her question with a raised eyebrow as the two of them made their way towards the bottom of the stairs and looked in exasperation at their friend.

"It's not that bad Akane-chan! I mean, look, I'm fine!" Otohime pouted, twirling as to show off the fact that she was in fact fine as her two friends sighed in response.

"Yeah, yeah. Honestly, why do you do this sort of thing anyway?" Nitta asked her basic question, something that she had asked before as she looked at the items that were on the floor, setting down her box and starting to pick them up.

Yonamine followed suit as Otohime followed as the three girls grabbed the items that were on the floor, items that were needed for the assembly that was happening later in the day for the start of summer vacation.

While their own middle school was something that, for some reason or another, was running lessons into the first day of what was technically summer vacation still, much to the disappointment of the students as they were expected to pay attention in class anyway, the assembly for the official start of summer vacation was happening later today.

Naturally though while the student council was something that was supposed to be dealing with this sort of thing by themselves, when it came to the opportunity to help out people in preparing the assembly, the first person that had volunteered to help was of course one Tatsugami Otohime.

Through some fashion or another, she had gotten her two friends wrapped up in the business of transporting the things needed for the assembly to the hall. The reason for why they were out of class then was clear to her two friends but at the same time, only reinforced in their minds the reason why Otohime was so popular in their school, especially among the guys.

Whether it be a pointless endeavour or something that had no importance whatsoever, it would be Otohime that would jump into the fray to help out in any way possible. When it came to problems regarding one's personal life, Otohime would always lend an ear. When it came towards standing up for anyone that was being bullied or shunned by the class it was Otohime that would always grin and manage to make things better.

Out of their own class, Nitta and Yonamine knew of at least 2 guys each that felt affection for the cheerful girl yet it seemed that that in itself was something shared a lot by the girls. Whenever one had a problem, it was Otohime that one could always turn to for a solution or at least comfort.

She was childish yet mature and to some extent, many people wondered what exactly made her tick, especially given her own family ties and the problems that were associated with that.

Nitta's question was not something that only she asked though. Yonamine had asked it too as she had many people in her and other's classes. Heck, even the teachers at some point had truly wondered why she did what she did.

She didn't seek reward despite people accusing her of trying to be a teacher's pet. She never told her parents despite the amount of praise that would come her way. In all of the massive amount of good luck that she received from the gods in her lifetime, it seemed that the one thing that Otohime wanted to do was spread it to others like a merchant giving out free goods.

It baffled many but all their questions could be summed up in that one question.

Yet for those that knew her well, there was only one response that she could give.

"Man, Midori-chan. I've told you this before! I was told by someone really important to me that we can't let our own problems be something that swallow us. If we suffer from our own problems, then what about the people that also face things we do? Or face worse things? I can't stop suffering but at the very least, I can at least make people want to look forward to tomorrow with a smile on their face. So, I just help out when I can, to do the best I can to make others fortunate in the face of their misfortune. As a human being, I think that that is the best I can do. And helping with this sort of thing is just an extension of that. But I swear I told you this before!"

Both Nitta and Yonamine sighed in the face of her response as they all picked up the things that were needed for the end of school term assembly later in the day. Sure Nitta had only asked the question upon instinct but even now, the steadfast personality of the girl to stick to her own ideals was something to be proud of.

But even so, both of her friends while they worked kept their mutual friend in the corner of their eye.

Otohime had said that 'someone really important to her' was the one that had influenced her to the extent that allowed her to take these actions. It was her that focused upon making sure that even those that were facing misfortune could have some fortune in the midst of their pain, something that she wanted to provide by helping out whenever she could.

Naturally there were some things that even she could not do however that never stopped the energetic girl towards trying her very best to make sure that people had the chance to overcome their problems and be caught up in pointless things rather than dire challenges.

And it was that 'one important person' that had allowed her to think that. It had been that person that had given her that idea that seemed to define her very being.

From what both Nitta and Yonamine had heard from Otohime's elementary school friends, it seemed that she had started to act the way she did now around the start of elementary school.

While both of her friends had no idea the life that Otohime had led prior to them meeting in middle school, they both had an idea of the 'important person' in Otohime's life that had influenced her so.

After all, even _they _had heard of the God of Pestilence or the God of Plague depending on who you asked that had almost had a TV show made about him.

Kamijou Touma.

上条 当麻.

Tatsugami Otohime's cousin and a person that many people felt matched the alternative spelling of his given name in kanji.

After all, although they had not known during their time in kindergarten, the name 'Touma' could be written as 透魔.

透魔 meaning 'Invisible Demon'.

Because that was what many people thought of Kamijou Touma, nothing more than a demon.

Both Nitta Midori and Yonamine Akane had heard the rumours from people that had met the boy in question himself; eyewitness accounts of this demon that most people felt had to be exorcised. While Otohime's school and place of residence was quite a ways away from where Kamijou Touma had once lived, it seemed that during his early years, the 'infection' that he had caused had made many people leave the area and moved elsewhere in order to escape from him.

As a result, many people had moved to this area around the time they were entering elementary school simply in order to flee from the demon's influence. Most of them now in their first year of high school, the name itself seemed to have become a legend both where the boy once lived and in the areas where people had fled to in order to escape as they spread news of the Plague.

Rumours had it that the boy had moved to Academy City, that place of Science that was surrounded by a large wall but even that was not enough to make some of the people that had moved move back to where they had come from. While some people had stayed where Kamijou had lived before he had moved, for those that had moved, some of them refused to move back simply because of the stigma around that area where he had once lived.

Most people felt that it was excessive, the treatment that the boy had been given however once they heard things about him, things that Otohime had neither confirmed nor denied, most people sat on the fence about the treatment that had the boy had been given.

While it seemed unfair towards a boy of that age, the misfortune that the boy had experienced and had placed on others seemed as though the world had used Kamijou himself as a vent to express their anger about the people that lived in the world. If there were Gods, they surely were denying Kamijou blessings of good luck; that was how most people saw it.

The tales that were told merely reflected that. While most stories that were told of the boy's misfortune came from those that knew him (stories that were even shared down in middle school to the extent that in areas where people that knew him now lived bad luck was considered as 'catching a Kamijou'), most of them seemed rather humorous. Things such as being attacked by birds, falling down a manhole, getting lost in the baggage hold on an airplane and going around the world twice definitely put a smile on people's faces when they heard them. Hearing stories like that, one could only feel sorry for the boy and wonder if that harsh treatment of Kamijou was necessary.

After all, throwing stones at Kamijou, marginalising him and downright putting so much physical and verbal abuse on him that allowed suicidal thoughts to appear was surely going overboard right?

Other things though only made them wonder whether it truly was going overboard.

Stories about how the school bus he had been on had been hit by a truck, stories about how during kindergarten a gas leak had threatened the lives of many students and stories of him apparently causing financial collapse for numerous individuals that had led him to be stabbed.

Hearing those stories and how they seemed to centre on Kamijou himself only made one wonder whether or not it was truly because of him that they happened.

And as such, made one consider whether treating him so viciously was something that was necessary.

From what both Nitta and Yonamine had heard, the girls that had known him (both in the original area where Kamijou had lived and the areas where they had moved to) truly felt repentant for the treatment that they had given him. Some guys had in fact felt those same feelings and when you mentioned the name 'Kamijou' to those high schoolers, expressions of guilt were definitely something that appeared on faces.

Yet for some of the other boys that had known him, there was none of that.

They truly believed that Kamijou Touma was nothing more than a demon that deserved to perish. They hoped that whatever experiments had been performed on him in Academy City had gone horribly wrong, leaving him in a vegetative state or better still, dead.

In those areas far removed from where Kamijou was actually staying, the boy was a deity of misfortune and suffering incarnate. 'Catching a Kamijou' was often seen as a bad thing and rightfully so. He was a legend by those that did not know him but that in itself was perhaps something amazing when viewed like that.

After all, Tatsugami Otohime, the cousin of Kamijou Touma himself was sitting right in front of them, helping the misfortunate with their suffering and trying her best to provide them fortune and things to look forward to.

Because of her own family situation and the legends that were surrounding her cousin, she also had a pretty difficult situation. People viewed her as an extension of the God of Pestilence, someone that would also cause them suffering. Most people stopped their connection with the girl there but once people got to know her, the truth was revealed.

Her sweet and kind-hearted, although childish nature, only made her even more approachable and any assumptions about her due to her family were removed once people got to know her better. In fact, it could be said that she had a large amount of luck in school and personal life.

She was popular, good looking, cheerful all of the time and she had even won first place in most of the guy's books. She was good with pets, liked by almost everyone and usually got prizes in the lotteries that were held in the nearby shopping districts. Whenever she visited arcades, she would sometimes get the special prize and would always turn up at stores at just the right time for specials wherever she went.

Yet despite all of that, there were those that could see her as nothing more than Kamijou Touma's cousin. However it was amazing the internal strength that the girl had and how she pulled through her own family ties and made a place for herself in people's hearts.

But then one question remained.

Why was her cousin, the God of Pestilence or the God of Plague depending on who you asked, the one who almost had a TV show made about him, such an important person to her, to the extent that he had influenced her life to focus on doing good for the better of other people?

Whenever the topic of her cousin was brought up when she was in earshot, either with the phrase "Well at least my life is better than that Kamijou Touma's" or "Crap, I've been Catching a Kamijou lately", she would merely smile and turn away from those group of people that were talking about it.

She never said anything but she didn't have to.

After all, the pained smile on her face was clear in expressing her own emotions. It was clear that she was upset about her family being mentioned in that way and she never talked about him a lot. On the rare occasions that she did though, a different picture of the misfortunate boy was created.

And it was one that showed a boy that truly did not want others to be hurt because of his own personal circumstances.

Tatsugami Otohime was basically the idol of the school yet even idols had their own demons.

It was the last day of the term, the beginning of summer vacation.

Yonamine Akane did not know what had possessed her in that moment, perhaps it was an Invisible Demon, but even she had to ask. It might have been the moment or the common response that Otohime made to the commonly asked question but Yonamine, while filling her hands, took the opportunity to ask.

"Otohime, why do you try so hard?"

"Huh?"

Otohime looked genuinely confused as she put what she was carrying into the box that she had dropped when she had fallen down the stairs and stared at her friend. Even Nitta was looking at her so Yonamine took the time to rephrase her question.

"What I mean is…..the things that you do….they're like something that you're following right? You might not want to say his name, but it's clear that the 'important person' that has influenced your life is your cousin, Kamijou Touma. But if he's the one that set you on this path, why are you following it so hard? Surely there are times when you've thought 'I don't want to do this' and 'This is getting tiresome'. But you've still done it. I'm just wondering why."

Yonanime's question was valid, calm and well expressed. There was nothing wrong with it from as far as she could tell but even so, when Otohime smiled in response, both of her friends could recognise that smile on sight.

It was that pained smile as if she was accepting that her first love was with another girl while watching in the shadows.

"I'm not wrong with what I do. I do things because I choose to Akane-chan." replied Otohime calmly.

"A-And no one's saying that you're not! It's just that you're popular, good looking and really well liked Otohime. But I mean…doing things like this on the last day of term, do you really have to?" Nitta joined in as well as Otohime managed to get everything in the boxes as she stacked them and stood up, slowly walking to the stairs as the others followed.

Silence came between the trio as both Nitta and Yonamine looked at each other awkwardly as if they had been found out after doing something terrible. No one had really asked Otohime straight up and in such a detailed way about her own actions or her relationship with her cousin.

She had always replied the same way in the former and avoided the question in the latter case. But right now, she had no avenue of escape except for ignoring the question as she seemed to be doing now.

It did seem that idols had their demons as the two friends calmly accepted that there was perhaps something about their friend that they would never –

"Say Midori-chan, Akane-chan. Have you ever seen someone smile yet you can tell by their face that they want to just cry? To let it all out in one go?" Otohime asked suddenly with her back turned towards them as the two friends looked surprised.

They answered in the affirmative merely because such a person was in front of them right now. What kind of burden was Tatsugami Otohime holding, as the cousin to the God of Pestilence/Plague? Why exactly did she smile yet seem to want to let out her pent up emotions and just scream to the world?

"The last time that I met Touma-onii-chan was…..I believe it was around 10 years ago." That response gave raised eyebrows both at the time length that had been mentioned as well as the way that she had addressed her cousin.

'Onii-chan'? Was that really what she had said?

They said nothing though as they continued to watch Otohime's back as she continued walking and spoke towards them.

"Those tales that you've heard about his misfortune. They're all true. If there were any doubts about that then let me clear them up. 'Catching a Kamijou' is something that references my cousin's ability to come across misfortune even in the safest of things. He once got stuck on a rollercoaster and fell overboard on a cruise ship. Sometimes, the things that he's gotten up to that I hear from Aunt and Uncle Kamijou are quite amazing."

Otohime let out a laugh however even her friends could tell the bitterness that lay behind it as she spoke.

Even though he might have been hated by a number of people, in essence the boy was still family. So what did she feel when she heard her family insulted to the extent that he always was within their own school? She was always silent, never said anything and always walked away from those people that talked about him.

But the bitterness that came across in that laugh only showed just how much she despised those things being said about her cousin.

Even though the tales of misfortune, as wondrous and pitiful that they were, were true, she still hated the fact that it was the case. That her cousin was merely insulted by people that knew nothing of him and only had second hand opinions.

"Say, when you heard those stories about my cousin, what did you think? When you heard them for the first time, what was the first thing that came to your mind?" Otohime never turned around as she asked that question to her friends, the both of them taking the time to think about their answer in order to honour what it was their friend was saying.

This was surely going somewhere but what could it be? The only thing that would tell would be if they answered that question.

"Well, I guess the thing that first came to mind was that I felt sorry for him." Nitta said after some brooding as the group left the school building and headed towards the school assembly hall.

"It was a bit different for me though," Yonamine said honestly. "I felt as though he was someone that I would want to stay far away from in order to protect myself from whatever misfortune he's carrying."

Maybe it was because she wanted to be completely honest with her friend that Yonamine gave that cold response and the friends were shocked to see that Otohime had stopped the moment that that had been said.

"Otohime?" Nitta asked however Otohime turned, the smile that was on her face lost as she clearly came across a hard topic for her right now. Instead, in its place was a melancholic expression as if she were describing a tale where she was the only survivor.

"There's nothing wrong with that. I've heard it all before," she said casually with that same expression on her face. "But the thing is, I felt the same. Before I met my cousin for the first time, I felt the exact same. I felt sorry for him but not to the extent that I wanted to tell him that it was alright; after all, he was filled with misfortune. What if it rubbed off on me? I was only thinking of myself and didn't even consider his feelings for a moment-!"

Otohime paused, her lip trembling slightly for an instant before she seemed to compose herself as she continued walking again as a light heartened tone with a hint of sadness filled her voice as she spoke once again.

"But then I met him. And you know what happened?"

"Something…..bad?" asked Nitta carefully, hoping that she wasn't stepping on a landmine.

"Nope! He hugged me and said that he was glad to see that he had such a cute cousin such as myself! Well, a stray baseball did hit him in the head after that, but that was what he said."

Otohime seemed to get a light spring in her step from her words as both of her friends gave slight frowns in response to that. Given his reaction, it was almost as if he was a normal kid, rather than the fabled God of Pestilence that they had heard about. They had imagined some kind of demon lord with warts growing on his face, perhaps missing an eye and a body filled with tattoos.

But it seemed that he was just your average guy.

"Was that it?"

"That was it. It was just a normal day, I had fun and nothing major happened. Sure, roof tiles fell on him, he was attacked by a dog, cat and fire hydrant, the soft drink can we had exploded in his face and he was almost run over by a motorcycle but I had fun. But you see, throughout the entire day, he always walked in front of me. Whenever I tried to walk next to him he would always push me behind or forward. You know what that meant?" asked Otohime.

Her friends shook their head, rather stunned by the fact that all that had happened within a day in response to her question.

"It meant that he was the only one that was hit by roof tiles. He was the one that was attacked by dogs, cats and fire hydrants. He was the one that received the full force of the soft drink and the one that almost died when almost run over by a motorcycle. Throughout the entire day we were together, he was hurt non-stop and you know what? I was off to the side, behind or in front of him watching the entire time as he was hurt yet I stood unhurt. He didn't enjoy himself because the only thing that he wanted was to make sure that his younger cousin was safe and unharmed." Otohime's tone regained its melancholy as her friends walked by speechless.

That was something that they had not expected. From the tales, they had expected that the boy himself would never intentionally try and prevent misfortune from happening to others. In fact, it was like he recognised that there was a stigma around him and on that one day had pushed his cousin aside to protect her from that very stigma.

He faced misfortune and in the face of that merely wanted to make sure that other people were fortunate, that they did not suffer because of things that happened to him. He had protected his little cousin at the cost of his own safety.

"I felt the same way." said Otohime as she smiled while looking at the faces of her friends. It was likely that their mouths were agape and faces showing shocked expressions similar to what Otohime herself had felt that day around 10 years ago. "I asked him about it later when he was reapplying bandages. 'Why did you protect me'? 'Why are you smiling with me when you are not happy'? I wanted to help him I guess but the thing was that I wanted to know more about the boy that was my cousin. His answer though was something that I never expected given his age."

Both of her friends seemed to lean forward as they awaited the answer that came from their friend's mouth. Otohime's actions for others were as much as a mystery as her cousin and it seemed that they were about to unveil the secret behind both of them. For them, it was an intense moment and something to look forward to.

"I remember exactly what he said. He said 'I didn't want to see you hurt Otohime-chan. I'm not a good person. I'm always facing my misfortune and I'm always unlucky. People I am with are hurt whether I like it or not and even though I wanted to spend the day with you, things went the same way as always. You could have been hurt and I knew it might happen but I still wanted to spend the day with you. But there is nothing that can be done about my misfortune. I will never be lucky, but even so I want you to be lucky in my place. I want to see you smile even if I cannot because I love you Otohime-chan. You're family and I want to see my family happy. Can I protect you for at least that'?"

Kamijou Touma had accepted his fate. He had been pressured on all sides, told he was evil and believed it to the bottom of his heart. He knew that he was unlucky but felt as though that was not something that should be felt by his cousin. He wanted the best for the girl and merely wanted her to smile enough if that meant ripping a smile off his own face and giving it to her.

It was the self-sacrifice of the most evil thing there was.

And at the same time, it drove a stake through the hearts of Tatsugami Otohime's friends. The boy was young, was faced with misfortune and his one thought in that? It wasn't to complain to his cousin and it wasn't to hate the world as a child. It was merely to make sure that his cousin was someone that was happy despite his own pain.

He was smiling without being happy because he felt that he could never be close with his cousin because of that misfortune. He protected her because he wanted her to be happy despite the pain he felt.

Fortune amidst misfortune.

Wasn't that the reason that Otohime wanted to help out as many people as she could? The reason why she and her friends were carrying the boxes filled with items for the end of term assembly?

"It was his misfortune that was the one thing that kept him from being happy. He was hated for it, hurt because of it and there was nothing that he could do; only accept it and move on. It really affected me, seeing how no one was willing to try and help him smile when the one thing that he wanted was to make me happy no matter the cost." Otohime explained as they turned another corner and the assembly hall came into view.

"But there was nothing I could say. What could I say to that? I couldn't say that I would want to share the pain that he did; he would be able to tell that I was lying and even if I meant it, he would refuse because he wanted to protect me. And right after he said that, he gave me this smile that was true. A real smile at the thought of keeping me safe. It was so shocking and kind that there was nothing I could say in return. His kindness was overwhelming and I was powerless to do anything about it."

"And what happened then? Did you see Kamijou-kun again?" asked Nitta as Otohime merely let out a sorrowful smile and shook her head.

"No…after that one time, my Mum and Dad felt as though it was perhaps in my best interests to maintain only a written connection rather than meet him face to face, for my own safety which was granted given what happened. They are more lax about it now and the only connection I get from him is what he tells Uncle and Aunt Kamijou in his transactions with home. But…if I do see Touma-onii-chan again, I want to tell him what I was unable to before."

"And that is?" asked Yonamine.

"That I want to make him happy as well. That I've made people have fortune amidst misfortune that they have suffered. That I want to make sure that he can smile with me and we can help people together. That he doesn't need to sacrifice his own smile to make me happy. That the greatest happiness that I could have would be by his side with him as he smiled."

Otohime turned back to her friends and gave her 100 watt smile, something that seemed blinding with both how it showed her true happiness as well as the anticipation that she had for when she met her cousin again.

"Because he deserves to be happy, despite what other people say. We were close from what my parents say but I want to get that back not only for my sake but for his as well. He's the best, kindest, funniest and supportive cousin there is and I love him for it. And nothing will change that!"

Tatsugami Otohime declared those words at her friends with a grin as they stood silent and still, blushing at the way that their friend had said those words. Sure, she probably meant nothing by them but still, the way that she had said them was something that changed depending on how you looked at it.

Her greatest happiness was not seeing the smiling faces of others as she provided them fortune despite their misfortune. Instead, it was to be happy by the side of her cousin, implying that the only one that could truly make her happy was that one boy.

And then there had been the last statement that she had made. Her declaration of love for her cousin. Sure, it may have been something innocent that she had said caught up in the moment but at the same time…..at the same time it could have been something else.

Both Nitta Midori and Yonamine Akane looked at each other with nervous expressions. Tatsugami Otohime was perfect, the boy's dreams and the girl's ideals within their school and no one had been able to find any faults within her except her relationship with the God of Plague.

But now that the two friends had learned the truth about the boy, that he was merely someone that had been given the short end of the stick and wanted to make sure that other people were happy despite what happened to him, it seemed that a hidden side of their friend was now known.

And that was the attachment that she had with Kamijou Touma.

They had to ask, just to make sure, and just to clarify the misleading way that Otohime had said things.

"Say….Otohime. You call Kamijou-kun Onii-chan but he's your cousin right?" asked Nitta.

"Huh?" Otohime stopped walking and turned around, tilting her head in a cutesy fashion. "Well Onii-chan is an only child so he won't get confused if I call him Onii-chan you know?"

"Yeah, but you're cousins. Shouldn't you like…have a nickname for your cousin rather than call him Onii-chan? Something like I don't know…Kami-yan?" questioned Yonamine.

"Huh? That's so lame! Besides do I need a reason to call Onii-chan 'Onii-chan'? We're close enough you know I'd like to think. On that day that I mentioned and the days that I spent with him after, we shared a bed. So he's my Onii-chan because of it."

Both Nitta and Yonamine did a spit-take, coughing in response to the words that she had said. Although it seemed as though she was saying this truthfully and innocently, still the way that one could think of it being said was misleading.

"Yeah, we get that. But don't you think that it's a bit clingy calling him that? I mean, won't he get the wrong idea or something?" asked Nitta to which Otohime merely frowned.

"What are you talking about? There's nothing wrong with being clingy. He's my Onii-chan after all. Whether it's clinging, hugging or outright flirting with him everything's OK! Because I love him after all!"

Otohime said those words with a happy tone as she came in front of the assembly hall, opening the door and making her way inside, leaving her two friends outside stunned as they considered the implications of what Otohime had said.

There was definitely something there….or was there? It could have gone both ways. She might have been overly attached to her cousin in order to make him happy but at the same time, was it necessary to go that far as flirting?

Not only that but if they looked too far into it, was it possible that maybe the love that she had for Kamijou Touma was genuine? Sure, they were family and cousins to say the least but even so…

Tatsugami Otohime was perfect in the eyes of those around her.

But even those with perfection have their own little quirks.

And it seemed that the one surrounding Otohime was, just as everyone had suspected, related to that boy that was filled with misfortune.

Just perhaps in a way that nobody really expected.

But for that small girl, Tatsugami Otohime that hummed a happy tune as she walked into the assembly hall none of that really mattered to her. Because for her, her life had been moulded by that one boy and right now the one thing that she looked forward to in life would surely have to be the day that they would meet once more.

And it would be then that Otohime would be sure to make that boy filled with misfortune realise the fortune in his life.

Even if it meant that she had to pull out all of the stops as the adorable, cute cousin that was putting on that adorable little sister act to win herself a special place in Kamijou Touma's heart after so long.

* * *

**And it's done!**

**The way that you can interpret what Otohime says here at the end can be done one of two ways. The simple way is that they are merely family. The other is of course that the Kami-yan Disease spreads further than one expects. Or is it as expected? Hard to say anymore.**

**Now, this was a chapter about Otohime! She's a little different than in ACUL0 in that she's already got the desire to 'help unconditionally' but apart from that I felt that she was the same. The core of the story here though was the Pandora's Box that is related to her relationship with her cousin.**

**I've always felt that for that Youngest Princess of the Dragon King, there is that potential that we don't see because (as of when this was written) she has only appeared in OT 4. As a character then there is much that people can do with her but people don't because she's never mentioned. But maybe it's because that she's never mentioned that I can be so flexible with her that I enjoy writing her that much.**

**But here, it was the 'connection' that she has with Touma that was important. While we have the CONS and PROS of a Forgotten Childhood two-shot we had a while back, this touches upon that a bit. After all, while Touma himself suffered, what about his family? In this way, I've always felt that maybe Otohime felt the effects of such and heard the stories of her cousin that would have affected her life. This in turn would affect what she would have thought of Touma when they first met but, as Touma does, he merely wants people to be happy despite what he faces.**

**As a result, he wants to protect his cousin from himself because of the point of view he has of himself. This is naturally something that Otohime can't stand and tries to change herself in order to try and save the cousin that could not save himself. He loves her (naturally only as a cousin) and wants to protect her but Otohime was incapable of doing that, thus she is trying to improve herself to be able to because she too he loves him (again, this could go both ways).**

**I tried a few ideas with this, before I put it on paper. Originally I had Takehiko from CONS make an appearance and make Otohime think about what her cousin is doing and THEN I had that her friends suffered because of misfortune that she would tell them this story and THEN I had that there was another OC having a problem with their cousin that Otohime would then tell this story to try and reconcile it.**

**Overall though, this was the structure of the story that I chose. Simply a story of a boy in pain and a perfect girl that saw that pain and wanted to prevent it at all costs.**

**Drawing the contrasts between the two of them was fun for me though as it shows how Touma's case differs a lot from his childish, playful yet lucky cousin. I hope that you enjoyed this one-shot about Otohime, her own thoughts of her cousin and her pain and perhaps her own position as a hero that extends her hand to those in need so she can reach that one person that she couldn't save.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please.**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**This story could definitely have gone both ways. But what is interesting is that if this was canon, Angel Fall would have been the next time that Otohime would have 'met' Touma. And we all know that he was not happy then, nor did Otohime get a special place in his heart.**


	24. The Rumour

**And here is another original idea!**

**Well I say original. You see, with my alternating between original ideas and requests, it means that if I am in the mood, I can do a request that fits a situation or seems to be overly long for me to do. In this sense, the 'original' project that will be satisfied this time is something of a request that I have chosen to do.**

**For people that think this is unfair, just hear me out. First of all, this is something that is going to be LONG, spread over not just one chapter but many. Instead of cramming everything that can be said into one chapter, I'm going to spread it out into many parts, but some of them will not be after this one. So the next 'part' of this might not appear until like 4 chapters away.**

**Think of it like a "To Be Continued" sort of structure, meaning that when one bit ends, it will shift towards another focus altogether. You'll see what I mean but chances are, you'll only get something of a small footnote when this ends. And for the other parts, you won't get an Author's Note (maybe a short one but it depends), only a continuation of the story. Or at least they'll be really small without a long introduction, the largest footnote being at the end of the entire 'story'. Of course you'll know when the story continues as it'll be part 'II' in the chapter name bar above.**

**Firstly, this original request, spreading over many chapters to come, is sent in by Master Knight who asked in a PM for an interesting idea. Since we chatted back and forth, the idea will be seen below so I won't tell you just yet what it is here. You'll have to see.**

**Here is the usual Q &amp; A though:**

**Darkness1st: As for your requests, thanks for sending in the ideas however I have already decided on a request to do from you so I hope that look forward to that. Don't stop sending them in; chances are I might get back to them but just informing you that I've got an idea already set.**

**malandy: They probably are natural hair colours….in a weird and complicated way.**

**dragonrider66: Now that you make a note of it, I think that you can draw parallels between Touma and Otohime and Kiritsugu and Shirou so it's not really that weird. I didn't think of it like that but the idea itself is interesting. As for the Kami-yan Disease maybe it really reached farther than expected? But if you interpreted last chapter like that then it's fine!**

**Agent Nine: I think Otohime is around something like 14 at least but looking back on what you said she really does seem to have a greater vocabulary than normal. I hope that it wasn't something that put you off the reading though and if it is, I apologise.**

**But before we begin, I'd like to thank three people. The first is of course my beta reader PokeRescue18. I do a lot of ridiculous stuff here and it's only because of the support I receive that I continue to do it. So thanks man.**

**And also, to you the reader. Again, the support that you give me is just as important and truly, truly valued. So thank you for your support here as well.**

**And finally, I'd like to thank Master Knight for this idea (again sorry for the requests on hold – I'll get to them – but this is a LONG idea so it won't be finished for a while like the other ones). For the most part I think that you guys will enjoy this idea and I hope that you look forward to the parts that will come gradually.**

**Now that that is out of the way, Happy Valentine's Day for 2016! Personally, if you think of this one-shot as being a SS Valentine's Day Special given the theme, then you are free to do so even though it really isn't, it's just a 'one-shot'. But it's probably the closest thing you're going to get to a Valentine's Day special from me right now so I hope that you enjoy it and the parts to come! If you spend it alone like I do, I hope that you take the time to at least enjoy this chapter. If you don't, I hope that you have a great day despite it possibly being early in some time zones for you.**

**Whatever the case though, from me: I hope that you fully enjoy the first chapter of this 'one-shot' to come.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

Be advised for reader discretion.

While this is set in a Between the Lines setting, the events here, the characters and evolution of their relationships with Kamijou Touma are canon to A Certain Unknown Level 0 up until Chapter 76.

Meaning that while this fits into the storyline of ACUL0, it is non-canon to that story as it is here in BTL. So think of it like the Christmas Special 2013 SS – it's non-canon to ACUL0 and basically another SS (it might be a Valentine's Day special if you want to think of it like that despite the title but it's really not). As a result there will be a few changes in this story, especially to those….'interested' in Touma but will have no effect on ACUL0.

Overall this means….

Additional harem members acquired: Kamijou Touma.

\+ Saten Ruiko.

\+ Shirai Kuroko.

\+ Konori Mii.

All other members of the harem prior to this point in the canon are still the same.

**Let the story begin.**

* * *

A Collision of Magic and Science. _A_Crossing_Of_Paths_With_No_Romance_Only_Misfortune._

"Do you think that it could be true?"

"I doubt it….but even so, the thought only makes it that much more exciting!"

"B-But I really want to ask!"

"But he might have left school you know? After all, it's not like we can get from here to there in the space of a few seconds. He'll probably be gone."

"Then we'll have to search the City for him!"

"Just to say, if it's true, then he's mine!"

"…Is that a challenge?"

"Oh ho ho. He'll be mine for sure, I'll have you know."

"No! He's mine!"

Misaka Mikoto frowned as she heard numerous students talk to each other in whispered voices as she entered the front gates of Tokiwadai Middle School. While it was not unusual to hear the students chatting among themselves before classes actually started there was something different in the air about what they were discussing.

On every other occasion, Mikoto realised that what they were discussing had nothing to do with her and she didn't care much for it. But right now, there seemed to be something different, a feeling that she could not shake no matter what.

She didn't like it one bit. It was like a mosquito that was buzzing in her ear; no matter how much she tried to push it away it would always come back and she would hear that high pitched noise in her ear that annoyed her to no end.

She found it strange merely because of the fact that she had seen this scene many times before; after all it was not unusual to see middle school students gossiping about this and that before class. But right now, it seemed somehow different.

"Onee-sama, do you feel that?"

Shirai Kuroko, her best friend asked her that question as the two of them walked through the school gates in a quiet voice. Mikoto raised an eyebrow in response however merely watched the other students around them carefully with her eyes.

Shirai had sensed it too and did the same as Mikoto, carefully eyeing the students around them.

It was then that Mikoto realised what had seemed to different in the air around her.

On every normal occasion, the gossips of the girls that went to Tokiwadai were all different. This was of course to be expected. Sure some groups chatted about similar things but if you were to go to a different group, chances were you would find a different topic of gossip that they were chatting about.

But that was different.

For some reason, it felt as though _every single girl in Tokiwadai Middle School _was talking about the exact same thing. Just the way that they all glanced at each other and avoided other groups of friends made it seem like they were all discussing the same thing.

Yet if that was the case, why were the different groups avoiding each other? Mikoto wasn't big on gossip apart from when it involved Gekota (the people that thought that the demographic of Gekota was elementary schoolers were just ridiculous) but the feel that she got from the air around her definitely made her gulp in nervousness.

After all, even though it felt as though every single girl within Tokiwadai Middle School was talking about the same thing, the atmosphere around them was definitely poisonous.

Even though it was subtle, both the Level 5 and the Level 4 walking through the grounds could feel the electricity in the air, something that was not caused by Mikoto. The students seemed to be smiling but the way that they looked at each other and stiffly greeted each other only made it seem as though they were all hiding knives behind their backs to stab their friends.

It was these two things, Mikoto's feeling that every single girl was gossiping about the same thing and the poisonous feeling in the air between every single girl that truly made Mikoto think that something was different.

Something was up and she wasn't involved in it.

She narrowed her eyes and leaned in towards Shirai.

"Hey, Kuroko….it wasn't like this at the Dorm this morning was it?" asked Mikoto to which Shirai shook her head.

"On the contrary Onee-sama, then everyone was pleasant and there was not this tasteless feeling in the air. I have no idea what is going on but I don't like it at all." Shirai said while looking around her.

She caught eyes with another student that smiled at her as Shirai seemed to recoil at the smile. Although she had talked to the girl on occasion, the smile that she was giving her was one that one might make before they poisoned their best friend. It was one of false pleasantness as if the girl were forcing herself to maintain an air of courtesy. Shirai imagined that if Brutus had smiled when he was in front of Caesar in his last moments, the smile would be the one that the girl was making now. **[1]**

Mikoto had a similar experience towards another group of girls, as the duo walked through the courtyard of the school with confusion and sweat on their faces. What in the world was going on here?

Had some bomb exploded within the school that they didn't know about? It was unlikely that it was 'that time of month' for almost EVERY girl in the school so that eliminated that possibility. So what in the world were these girls talking about that got them so up in arms and distrustful of each other?

"Academy City sure is a dangerous place."

Mikoto said that comment off hand but Shirai felt as though there was an absolute truth within her words. They both of them sighed in the face of this mystery that had nothing to do with them but at the same time affected them to a large degree.

They couldn't exactly leave it alone but they felt as though nobody they would ask would respond truthfully. It was certainly a dilemma and one that the two girls were unsure of how to approach, especially this early in the morning.

"Misaka-san! Shirai-san!"

A cheerful voice beckoned the duo from the school itself as the two girls looked up. Waving her hand in the air, beside her two friends was Kongou Mitsuko with Wannai Kinuho to her left and Awatsuki Maaya to her right.

Mikoto immediately smiled and waved back at her friend as Shirai, in a rare move for her, did the same. Given the atmosphere, they needed someone friendly to talk to even if Shirai felt distaste in the presence of the fellow Level 4 esper.

"Kongou-san! Wannai-san! Awatsuki-san!" cried Mikoto towards her friend as she made her way over to the trio followed by Shirai as she smiled at her. "How are you this fine morning?"

"Just fine Misaka-san. Although, calling it fine would be a stretch…." Kongou looked around at the girls that were passing by the group of five; smiling but only receiving those distrust smiles back. "But what of yourself? It seems as though you and Shirai-san are rather…immune. I would have thought that you would have been affected by it." She said offhandedly leaving the two girls with frowns.

Immune? Affected?

What in the world was she talking about?

"Hang on there, Kongou Mitsuko. You're making less sense than usual. What in the world are you talking about?" asked Shirai as she tried her best to ignore the falsely smiling students that were around her.

This time it was the Kongou group that looked surprised as Wannai put a hand to her mouth in obvious shock at what Shirai had said.

"Shirai-san, you…haven't heard?" asked Wannai in a careful voice as she looked around at the students that passed her.

"I personally did not find it that shocking although I do understand the chaos that it created at the same time. Our Dorm was in an uproar when it was spread around the breakfast table." remarked Awatsuki with a low voice, speaking in conspiratorial tones.

"Hang on there." Mikoto put a hand forward as if to stop the group right where they were in terms of what they were speaking about. "What are you talking about? We didn't hear anything when we went down to have breakfast. Everyone was fine until we reached school."

"Did something happen?" Shirai asked, stepping forward ever so slightly as she seemed to enter her Judgment mode but it was the Wannai-Awatsuki duo that merely shook their heads and waved their hands in front of their faces.

"No, no! It's nothing like that. No one was hurt….at least not yet."

"Yet?" Mikoto asked, putting her hands onto her hips. Although she felt as though this issue both had nothing and something to do with her, hearing something like that from Awatsuki was not something that she could take lying down. It was nowhere to the extent of that idiot but if there was the chance that people she knew were going to get hurt then she wasn't going to sit back and do nothing about it.

"I think it would be best if you explained yourself there. What exactly did you hear at the breakfast table this morning?" asked Shirai.

Kongou looked around before raising the fan that she was holding in one hand, opening it to cover her mouth while fanning herself at the same time. Her eyes darted cautiously around her as both Mikoto and Shirai wanted to tell her to get on with it before she leaned in and said in a soft voice:

"Well, this is only a rumour. But before we begin, I'd like to say that Wannai-san, Awatsuki-san and I really think nothing of it. After all, it wasn't like there were a number of opportunities for us to make a proper assessment. Maybe when we get our own character arc, we'll come to some decision regarding where we stand on this rumour but right now, we are neutral on the matter." Kongou said those words rather hastily, leaving Mikoto and Shirai wondering what in the world she was talking about when she said 'character arc'.

"I have to agree! We've been pushed to the side as secondary characters for too long!" Wannai said with a frown on her face and also in hushed tones.

"It might not look like it when we hardly say anything, but we have feelings too!" Awatsuki made a similar comment that the two could not understand however Mikoto and Shirai dropped the issue.

"Never mind about that, whatever it is that you're talking about." said Mikoto with an impatient tone. "What is this rumour that's caused all of this chaos? It feels like everyone's ready to stab each other at a moment's notice."

"Well alright then." said Kongou as she spoke behind her fan. "Since the three of us don't really care about this rumour or who it involves I'll just say what was told to us word-for-word." remarked Kongou. Mikoto and Shirai were happy that Kongou and her friends did not care about the rumour and were practically the only people that they could talk to properly inside the school but they wished that she would hurry up and tell them what the rumour was already!

Kongou once more scanned the girls that were around them as if watching for anyone that was trying to eavesdrop on their conversation but upon seeing that it was not the case, merely repeated word-for-word what she had heard earlier that morning in her Dorm.

She repeated the rumour that had started all of this; the distrust in the atmosphere and the gossip that everyone was talking about.

"'It seems as though that boy, Kamijou Touma-kun is apparently looking for a girlfriend."

* * *

Misaka Mikoto had broken 2 pencils and 3 pens within the space of 20 minutes but still she couldn't get the frown off her face as she tapped incessantly in the classroom. Nobody watched her do so, simply because of the fact that everyone was doing something similar. The classroom itself sounded like someone had started a Drum Club due to all the tapping from all the students filling the classroom, making it the most dominant sound.

The teacher at the front was clearly trying to ignore the sound but with everyone making it, it was hard for her to pinpoint an exact source nor was she willing to get the entire class in trouble for the tapping. After all, it wasn't like it was limited to just this classroom after all.

Echoing through the hallway, that tapping could be heard from every single classroom in the Middle School, like some kind of twisted call and response that threatened the sanity of those individuals that desired to do their jobs and educate these children.

But right now, that seemed to be an impossible task as the people within the classroom, the so-called 'refined Tokiwadai ojou-samas', were doing nothing that was remotely related to learning. Instead, it seemed as though their attention was elsewhere. Specifically it was directed outside the window although whatever was out there that attracted the attention of everyone was beyond the teacher to understand.

Still, she taught and was ignored, trying her hardest to keep that tapping out of her head to little success as the students all replayed in their mind the one rumour that had affected them so.

Kamijou Touma was looking for a girlfriend.

That simple phrase was enough to cause this change within the Middle School and enough to cause that change within the girl's hearts as they all tapped on the floor or desks.

And within that crowd, the #3 Level 5 esper of Academy City, looked down at her desk with serious eyes as she analysed the information that she had been given.

She had been shocked. That of course was natural given that she had never even heard that he was looking for a girlfriend in the first place. But perhaps the most shocking thing was how her view of the girls around her suddenly changed within that instant upon hearing the rumour.

It was obvious that many of the girls within Tokiwadai had gained an infatuation for the boy, especially after the Battle of School Garden. And the reason for that was because of the way that they openly expressed it, talking about hypothetical scenarios where they would ask the boy out and how it would progress.

No one had gone that far though because of their own embarrassment but there were quite a few students within Tokiwadai that openly expressed their admiration for the boy. Which meant that the amount of girls that were clearly going to try and take advantage of this rumour were quite high.

But that wasn't the problem.

The problem was that Mikoto herself, as well as many of the other students, did not know _how many people had gained that admiration yet kept it to themselves_.

People who did not openly say that they liked the boy who blushed when his name was mentioned. Girls that would swoon when he greeted them in the street and would write in their diaries whenever he interacted with them by chance.

There were surely those kinds of girls within Tokiwadai but the problem was that Mikoto did not know who they were. As a result, it was entirely possible that the amount of girls within the school that had that admiration for him were larger than she thought.

And thus, it was entirely possible that there were more people trying to take advantage of that rumour than she thought.

Which presented the obvious problem to Mikoto.

Who could she trust?

Who could she put her faith in and confide in that was clearly not attracted to that idiot in anyway?

This was the major problem that filled her mind as she looked out the window yet at the same time used the reflection in the glass to keep an eye on her classmates.

Although she did not want to doubt Kongou-san, Wannai-san and Awatsuki-san, it was entirely possible that although they said that they had no attraction to the boy because they hadn't interacted with him personally and had only seen what he had done for others, they could be lying.

They could be lying in order to make Mikoto trust them as to take advantage of her when her guard was down, taking her out of the game and thus take advantage of the rumour while she was incapacitated. She didn't want to think such things about her friends, but the possibility but definitely there.

And that was only for her friends.

What about the people that she didn't know? The people that she was merely classmates with?

What were their intentions? If they were indeed planning on taking advantage of the rumour, how were they going to do it? What methods were they going to use?

That distrust filled her mind and she added it towards the already tense atmosphere that surrounded the school. She had walked into the school without understanding what had caused the atmosphere but right now, she understood it perfectly.

What this was, was basically an auction.

There was one prized possession yet that one possession was something that was first come first served. There were no bids and only the person that arrived at the possession first and stated their intentions would be the one that would possibly get said possession.

Which meant that there was to be no comradery among the rival bidders. And thus, no trust between them.

The worst thing about this though was that Mikoto had to reluctantly think of Shirai as perhaps a rival bidder. She had seen what that idiot had done for her when the Misawa Cram School had collapsed and Shirai's attitude towards the boy had greatly changed after that one incident.

So, was that change in attitude to such an extent that she would want to take advantage of this rumour? Was it to the extent that she would want to move on from the clingy attitude that she had towards Mikoto and move to…..

Mikoto shook her head as she tried to get her thoughts in line. No, there was perhaps a more basic thing that she had to make sure of.

If indeed these girls were to take advantage of this rumour, there was one obvious thing that needed to be done.

And that was check the validity of it.

In other words, was Kamijou Touma truly seeking a girlfriend?

The only way to figure that out was to check the source; the boy himself. Whatever happened after that would run its course. If that idiot himself said that he wasn't looking for a girlfriend, then there was no problem. However, if he himself stated that he was indeed looking for one….

Mikoto then had to make plans. She could easily call him however it was in the middle of school. She was learning (or at least was supposed to be) and he was too (well, whatever his tiny brain could process at the very least). Besides, these sorts of things were not things that had to be discussed over the phone. Facial expressions and body language were things that had hidden meaning but would never be expressed over the phone.

Which meant that in order to determine the entire truth of this rumour and be likely to get it, one had to ask the boy directly in a face to face conversation.

But what was the best route towards getting to the boy's high school? Mikoto knew where it was as did the rest of the student body. After all, his school had been the one that had assisted with the Tokiwadai Annual Clean-up. Checking the school that he had come from was easy and something that practically everyone had done.

But to get from here to that high school was surely going to be a chore. Shirai was perhaps the only one that could manage that feat within mere seconds because of her power but unfortunately, Mikoto couldn't trust her. It was possible that Shirai would go there herself to check on the rumour's validity for her own agenda rather than help Mikoto with hers.

Which meant that Mikoto had to deal with this herself. The best route to get from School Garden to that idiot's high school would have to be a beeline. However the amount of traffic and buildings that were in the way would mean that she would have to manoeuvre around them using her power, which could waste precious –

Wait a minute.

Mikoto froze as she stopped her thought processes.

Why was she so hot and bothered about this? She didn't trust Kongou, Wannai, Awatsuki and even her best friend Shirai all over a stupid rumour. Something that didn't even have anything to do with her! The personal life of that idiot was his own business, something that he had to deal with himself.

It had nothing to do with Mikoto and she was sure that he didn't want her prying into his own issues either. Just as he stayed away from her own personal life (well there were a few exceptions), she should stay away from his. There was that tacit understanding between the two of them yet she couldn't leave this alone.

And the simple fact was that if this rumour were true, no the very existence of this rumour placed a doubt within her mind.

And that doubt was that it was possible that any one of the girls that she was looking at in the reflection in the mirror could end up by the side of that idiot if the rumour was true. Standing by his side as something perhaps more than just a passing acquaintance, more than a Tokiwadai Middle School student and more than just another person in the street.

And whenever Mikoto imagined that sight, imagined someone else standing next to him, it drove a stake through her heart.

She hated that feeling. She hated herself for feeling that feeling when that idiot's life had nothing to do with her. She hated the fact that she couldn't help but feel distrustful of her friends when it came to this topic. She hated the fact that she knew that there were a lot of people that were going to be just as affected by this rumour, having the same feelings that she did for the boy.

And most of all, she hated that that idiot was being the centre of something that he probably didn't want to create trouble over.

It was his life. That idiot's personal problems.

Yet Mikoto could not help but feel hot and bothered about her own personal feelings that she had for the boy. This was his own personal problems yes and it had nothing to do with her…yet it wasn't something that she could merely let go.

No matter how much she wanted to deny it, she had to admit the fact that there was something connecting Misaka Mikoto and Kamijou Touma. While the latter probably thought nothing of it, the same was not said of the former.

But to what extent did that connection reach? To what extent did the connection between them bind her and him?

She had to figure that out. And the only way to do that was to confront the boy about the rumour that she had heard.

Not only would it allow her to affirm what the boy thought of her but it would also give insight into her own position relative to other girls in his life. She realised that she was indebted to him and that perhaps she cared for him more than most, but how far did that go? Their relationship whenever they saw each other was as it always had been and nothing had changed.

But was this the time for that change?

It was a make it or break it situation. Whatever happened between her and him was something that she had to determine and she was not going to let anyone else get in her way. She had to be the first to ask that idiot whether the rumour was true, to satisfy herself and if possible, take that next step forward.

As much as she wanted to deny it, there was a small feeling sleeping within her that she had difficulty explaining. But it was the one right now that made her want to move forward and make her plan towards being the first to ask about that rumour.

But in order to do that, she had to put her own conflicting thoughts aside. She needed to get to his school first and speak to him. Then she could come to terms about what she felt and it was only then that she could deal with these battling emotions within her.

They could be put to the side for the moment and the real issue dealt with.

Somehow, she needed to get out of school and confront that idiot in his high school.

She looked away from the window and she reached for her phone in her bag and carefully placed it inside the open drawer in her desk where her books were, reaching for the coin that she always used in her famous Railgun attack as well. She opened the phone slightly, placing the coin within it before closing the phone and returning to her original position of tapping her foot and gazing out the window.

It was clear that no one was listening in class but regardless, her plan now was the only way that Mikoto could get out of class while at the same time not doing something that would land her in detention or cleaning the pool.

She used her power, manipulating magnetism to vibrate the coin inside her phone in the desk's drawer as it rattled, giving a different sound among the tapping that filled the room. The teacher, perhaps now fed up with the new sound sighed and looked at the source just as Mikoto pulled the phone out of the desk and answered it.

"Misaka, what have I told you about ph-"

"Hello?"

Mikoto ignored the teacher out right as she placed the phone to her ear and feigned having a conversation in the middle of class. She put on a mock look of surprise as she turned towards the teacher and the clock at the front of the room, everyone watching her do so with suspicious glances.

"N-No, I can't do that! I'm in the middle of class!"

The teacher rose an eyebrow at this as Mikoto falsely tried to make it as though she was conflicted before sighing and nodding to her non-existent caller.

"Alright….if it's for the Board of Directors, I suppose this can't be ignored. I'll inform my teachers but make sure you fill out the proper paperwork OK?" She said as she hung up the phone.

She immediately placed it into her pocket before placing her hands together and bowing in front of the teacher that looked surprised at the sudden transaction that had taken place in her class.

"Sorry sensei! It seems as though one of the Board of Directors suddenly wants to review the results from my previous tests with me. They want me to come over right now so I'll have to leave. Is it OK if I can?" Mikoto asked carefully towards the teacher as she frowned.

"I never heard about this."

"I didn't either! It's come out of the blue but I don't want to have to put this off and then miss out on a bunch of sleep time and other classes when it can be dealt with now. Is it alright with you sensei?"

Mikoto tried her best to sound genuine as the teacher merely sighed and shook her head.

"Alright. I'll provide you with the necessary documents of what we covered today to make sure that you aren't behind. I'll tell the rest of the staff as well but how long do you think you'll be out? Is the research facility on the outside or within School Garden?" Her teacher asked that question as Mikoto gulped and prepared herself for what was coming.

"It's in one of the external facilities so I'll have to miss out on classes for the rest of the day."

Mouths within the classroom dropped as the entire class realised perhaps in that moment the cunning and evil genius that belonged to the Level 5s. They had always thought of Mikoto as somewhat reserved but the way that she had managed to get out of class was merely so nefarious that it bordered on 'criminal mastermind'.

And it was clear where she was going to go in the spare time that she had.

They had no idea if the call from the external facility was legitimate or not but taking a 'small detour' would surely not create a large amount of trouble for said facility. Which meant that there was only one location that Mikoto was going to stop by when she was making her way to said facility, if indeed the call was real.

And it was the location that practically all of the students in Tokiwadai wanted to visit.

"So I'll be going now sensei." remarked Mikoto with that same stiff smile that everyone was making towards each other as she reached for her bag. "Please be sure to inform my other teachers."

"I will Misaka. I hope that everything goes w-"

"Misaka-sama!"

One of the students suddenly yelled out Mikoto's name as she turned towards her, seeing that the student had stood up to which Mikoto silently rose an eyebrow. Why was this girl standing up? She wasn't anyone that had directly claimed that she liked that idiot.

Was her hunch correct and that even those that had said nothing about liking the boy, had in fact gained an attraction to him?

While Mikoto had that quick thought though, the girl gave a slight cough and spoke.

"W-Would you like someone to accompany you to the school gate? In fact, would you like someone to accompany you to this external facility?" Her smile was stiff and her posture nervous as she asked that question, giving Mikoto a stunned facial expression.

"Huh?"

What was she, a small child? She could make it there herself and it was clear that she didn't need anyone to 'escort' her towards her destination. Even the teacher seemed to realise that it was completely unnecessary as she started to say something however another student immediately stood up and put a hand to her chest.

"If that is the case, then I will volunteer to assist Misaka-sama!"

"Huh?"

"P-Please wait a minute! It was my idea so I should be the one to escort Misaka-sama!"

"Huh? Huh?"

"A-Actually sensei," A completely different student now rose, holding her stomach and clearly feigning a look of pain. "I think it was something I ate but…..I don't feel too good. I've got a really…. bad stomach ache so could I be excused and head to the District 7 hospital?"

Silence resounded through the classroom as all eyes turned to the student that had spoken. Suddenly, with a large crashing sound, numerous girls fell to the floor holding their stomachs and groaning in pain as they spoke up as well.

"C-Come to think of it I do too now!"

"W-Was it something we ate?"

"I-I was in the same dorm and ate the same things so I think I should head to hospital as well just to get checked!"

"Ohhhhhhh…..my stomach…"

Mikoto's face went entirely pale, something that was matched by the teacher as they both looked at the scene in front of them. What in the world was going on? Were these girls really trying that hard to get to that idiot's high school?! Not to mention it was her entire class!

Mikoto's sense of scale was completely wrong though as the loud sound of numerous tables and chairs being toppled over filled the air from different classrooms as well as groans from other people that had clearly heard what had happened inside Mikoto's classroom and had decided to do the same thing.

The groaning filled the air like some kind of zombie movie as Mikoto suddenly gulped as numerous girls (was it the entire student body of around 180 students give or take a few?!) made those sounds and pleaded with their teachers to get sent to hospital.

This was her first obstacle towards reaching that idiot's high school.

Whatever she was going to ask and what emotions she was going to experience when she approached the boy and asked him about the rumour were something that she had to put to the side for the moment.

She would never get to ask those questions in the first place unless she reached the prize possession first.

But for that Level 5, it seemed as though the challenge in front of her was greater than she had ever imagined.

* * *

Misaka Mikoto made panting sounds as she saw A Certain High School in her sights.

It was currently quite a bit into the lunch time hour of the schools although the time was around 2 hours after she had made that false plea to leave the school. A number of things had happened and there was a great crisis involving animals, Private Shidarezakura Academy and the shower room but she had been the first to make it.

A light entered her eyes as she panted heavily, only slightly noting that on one of the floors there was a broken window that seemed to be broken from the inside judging by the glass on the ground but her focus was more on her own mind.

What was she going to say?

What was she going to ask?

How would that idiot respond?

Numerous things and different ways that they could go entered her mind, causing her face to go slightly red however she slapped herself in the face.

(I've come this far and I'm not backing down! Whatever happens, happens so whatever cards fate plays me, I'll have to live with my entire life!)

Mikoto internally had that thought as she slowly walked up to the school, feeling as though her pace was slowing with each and every step. Her anxiety and nervousness with each step caused her face to turn a bit redder and sparks started flying from her bangs as she released her power subconsciously.

So much had happened and Mikoto was the first one here.

There was always a chance that one of the students from his high school had heard the rumour and made their advances towards the boy first but Mikoto had come too far to back down if indeed that was the case.

She had made a promise within herself and was going to do whatever it took to ensure that she had the bravery to ask that idiot what she wanted of him.

(Is the rumour that you are looking for a girlfriend true?)

(What am I to you?)

(I….lo…..lo…lo….!)

Mikoto's face burned even redder, if that was possible, as she found herself approaching the entrance of the courtyard, taking the time to slowly form the courage within herself to move beyond the position that she had now.

She was satisfied yes, but she was not happy with only remaining where she was. If she ended up moving forward or backwards, only time would tell but there was no way that she was merely going to let this opportunity pass.

(All of this inner turmoil for a stupid rumour. If this turns out to be bogus, I'm punching him until he forgets that I ever asked. And then I'll kill whoever is its source!)

A few more steps and then she would be within yelling distance of the boy's classroom, or at least where she had seen him dressed like a pervert wearing that trench coat during December. Was that where his classroom was?

Would she have to actually enter the school and look for him directly?

Her thoughts though came to a stop as someone stepped right next to her, someone that had taken advantage of her worried state and walked right up to her without her knowing.

Misaka Mikoto went wide eyed at the panting figure beside her. While it seemed as though she was tired, her face was slightly red as if going through the same questions that Mikoto was however she smiled a familiar stiff smile towards Mikoto.

"Well, well Misaka-san. It looks like we are both on the same stage. Unfortunately, despite my…position ability, this is something that I cannot ignore. I know it is the same for you and circumstances mean that we cannot ignore each other. So."

The person next to her reached into her handbag and pulled out a remote that she held out towards Mikoto as she leaped back and increased the distance between the two.

"Shokuhou…. Misaki."

Mikoto said that name before gulping and tensing her body as she faced the other Level 5 of Tokiwadai Middle School.

"What are you doing here? Although that idiot saved your life during the Battle of School Garden, this seems more than that! What kind of connection do you have with him!? It's clearly more than meets the eye."

"Misaka-san," Shokuhou sighed while shaking her head, smiling stiffly once more as she looked at Mikoto with those starry eyes that held a desire to remove Mikoto from the stage entirely. "Do you really think you should be asking such an important question during something that is non-canon to the main storyline of the main fic? You'll confuse the readers."

"What does that even mean!?"

Shokuhou said nothing else as she held out that remote in a battle stance with a smile on her face as Mikoto tensed, watching her every move, sparks flying from her bangs seriously.

She hadn't thought it would be easy.

But then again she didn't think it would have been this hard either.

But for that Level 5, it seemed as though the challenge in front of her was greater than she had ever imagined, a thought that she had once more.

But another thought filled her mind in that one instant.

Today…..was going to be a looooooooooooooooooong day.

* * *

**[1] This references Caesar's assassination and the famous quote "Et tu, Brute?" Basically the point being raised is that the girl is smiling in a way as if she is ready to betray Shirai at a moment's notice.**

**It's disappointing that I'm committed to only making a longish one of these in the final chapter where I would have forgotten the character growth that I gave Mikoto here but I'm thinking of putting such growth in ACUL0 as well such as where Mikoto questions her position and realises that she needs to find it relative to other girls with Touma. If I wasn't committed, I'm sure that I would talk a lot about the development Mikoto made here in terms of her own stagnant position. Did you guess the theme of the request that was here then? I hope that as you can see, this was going to be a long story and thus treated as an 'original' story rather than a 'request' because of its length. I hope that you enjoyed it for the most part and I'll leave it there.**

**Until the next time.**

**Happy Valentine's Day and I hope that this served to make your day!**

**And as always,  
Review if you please.**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**To Be Continued…..**


	25. The (N)Everlasting Bonds

**And back with the requests! I'm serious this time!**

**For those waiting for the next part of the previous Chapter, I did say that it will be released not in a linear order but if you wanted to read it when the project is done, all you have to do is search out the chapters in the bar and then read them in order. Sorry for the confusion.**

**Also, I have to note that I have skipped some requests in my reviews simply because I have already satisfied a request for that particular reviewer before. Unless the idea REALLY jumps out at me you'll have to sort of wait your turn until I get most of the requests out of the way. Please note though that you are not forgotten, but I have a larger amount of people contributing to this as well meaning that I would like to give them a go as well.**

**I hope that you understand.**

**Before we actually get to the request though, here is the Q &amp; A:**

**dragonrider66 (and whwsms): Well I think that Deadpool came out after I finished writing this but breaking the fourth wall is nothing new for me personally. But for everyone out there, you'll only have to wait for what comes next…..**

**Anon Guest: Shokuhou was included, she was at the end of the previous chapter. As for the other characters, like Seria and Ayu, you'll have to wait for the next chapter.**

**But here we are with the requests like I said. This comes in from Punitor567 who asked:**

Keep it up. Finally, may I make a request?

A chapter focused on Stiyl, Kanzaki and Index's relationship.

Anyways, Punitor567 out. Keep up the great work.

**And of course I can do that! But first before we begin, I'd like to start off with thanking the usual people.**

**The first of course, my all-important beta reader PokeRescue18. Without his work here, I'd be hard pressed to actually get things in a working order so I'd like to thank him for his hard work in this.**

**The next is you, the reader. You might not realise this but with each and every author, you are our bread and butter. We do this for you and I hope that you enjoy it for as much as it is worth.**

**And lastly, I'd like to thank Punitor567. You read, reviewed and asked something and I am more than happy to comply. The idea though might be a little weird…..We'll see though!**

**Before I actually start though, I'd have to make a note that because of my school starting up again meaning that my holidays are effectively over, I'll be taking a bit of a break when it comes to this just so I can prioritise my work over these projects. I hope that you can understand although I will have another chapter up maybe early next month or near the end of this month for BTL before I'll be going on a small hiatus to focus on school for a bit. I hope that you can all understand and enjoy this chapter and await patiently the next.**

**Lastly though from me, the only thing that I hope you do is enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

There's Something About The 0th Division. _Early_Days._

The wind blew lightly and while the sun that shone in the sky beat down on the figures on the ground, one boy with red hair donning a black priest's robe held an annoyed expression as he looked at the sight in front of him.

Despite the fact that it was supposed to be one of the most mysterious and historic landmarks of England, not to mention its magical significance, the young Stiyl Magnus (aged 12) truly felt as though there was nothing special about Stonehenge.

Sure he realised that because no one knew what the magic stone circle was actually used for there were a number of interpretations giving way to a number of different uses of the circle. This in turn meant that for anyone that was trying to figure out what the massive stone collection actually meant, there were a number of answers and none were entirely correct or incorrect.

Magically, it was extremely important. While magic circles were usually created in order to serve a specific purpose that coincided with the spell caster's discipline, the Stonehenge circle was something that could be interpreted in many ways among many disciplines. It could be used for a number of different magical spells and went from one extreme to the other.

Yet although the mystery that surrounded this massive structure was to this day unsolved, the cries of the person next to him made it seem like the answer had been there all along.

"It was aliens! Aliens! Octopus-like aliens came from the sky and implanted Stonehenge in the ground!"

Stiyl sighed as he heard the ridiculous revelations being made by an equally ridiculous person. He looked to the side and spotted a silver haired young girl, perhaps around the age of 12-13 jumping up and down in excitement as she pointed at the stone structure that was in the distance.

Her nun's habit was white with golden lining, the same type of white as her skin as her green eyes stared at the structure with a proud gaze as if she had unravelled the entire mystery of the ages in an instant.

"Index," he said as he turned towards her with a frown. "It is not and will never be aliens that set up Stonehenge. Can't you think of something that perhaps really happened?" he asked in a bored tone as Index turned towards him with a frown on her face.

"Oh yeah Stiyl? Then what's the answer? Who put Stonehenge here? How did one create a magic circle that can be used across numerous disciplines? Do you have an answer Stiyl? Well!?" Index walked up to the boy and went on tip-toe to put her face closer to his as he stepped back, slightly blushing at the close proximity of the girl to him.

"W-Well at the very least I can tell that it's not aliens!"

"It is! You have no idea what aliens can do! I just know that they are going to descend and abduct us before taking us into space where we can be friends!"

"And what does that have to do with Stonehenge at all?"

"It's to communicate with them!"

A giggling came from the side as the two looked where it had come from, seeing the third person of their group standing next to them and covering their mouth as they tried to hide back their own laughter.

"Kaori. What's so funny? Do you think it wasn't aliens too like Stiyl?"

The girl, Kanzaki Kaori aged 16 only coughed, clearly trying to regain her composure as she looked at the two that were bickering over the massive stone structure in front of them. Her large ponytail blew with the wind and her jeans were cut at one leg and the shirt was tied around the waist giving view to her navel.

While she was fairly new to Necessarius and one of the fewer than 20 Saints in the world, the quick connection that she had formed with the boy and girl in the time that she was at Necessarius was nothing to be laughed at.

While she had defected to the Anglican Church only recently and learned English, the way that she interacted with both of those members of Necessarius only made it seem as though they had been comrades since birth; friends for eternity.

She smiled at them and merely straightened her posture, speaking in English as she too stood in front of the massive structure.

"No, it's just that we aren't here to determine the mysteries of Stonehenge. So I think that trying to discuss why it's here in the first place isn't really worthy of our time you know." Kanzaki said those words smoothly, trying to show that she was the most mature one of the group as the oldest one there as the young Index only narrowed her eyes at her.

"I know why we're here Kaori! But I'm telling you it was aliens!"

"It wasn't aliens. Stonehenge was an act of God himself, gracing the world with a structure that is meant to test our faith. How can we look at this structure and think of anything other than God? It is clearly a test to determine the truly worthy to follow His name." remarked Kaori as Index's eyes went wide as she hung her head, clearly embarrassed as an Anglican nun to think otherwise.

Stiyl on the other hand merely scoffed.

"I find it hard to believe that coming from you. I believe the Amakusa, of which you are Priestess is a pseudo-Christianity, combining the systems of Christianity, Shintoism and Buddhism into one discipline meaning that you don't really believe in the one God at all. It's ridiculous to hear a fusion style Christian sect blab on about God." He spat out those words as Kanzaki went red in the face, her grip on her two metre long nodachi, Shichiten Shichitou, suddenly tightening.

"W-Well despite that, what I say is still true, Respect your seniors Stiyl!"

"Kaori…did you just try and trick me?"

Kanzaki seemed to freeze up at the frown that Index was giving her as she slowly averted her gaze, whistling to herself as she tried to divert the attention away from what she had said and how she had tried to pull one over Index's eyes.

"You did! You did! It was aliens! Aliens were the ones that put this here!"

"Can we get on with this?"

The voice that came towards the trio was not from their group but rather from behind them, standing another magician that was clearly upset at having to babysit the trio. While there were others behind this magician as well, it seemed as though they were equally as unpleased to do this babysitting job when there were clearly other things that were more worth their time.

While Kanzaki and Stiyl were perfectly happy taking Index to Stonehenge themselves, the reason that they were here was something of perhaps magical importance.

Index was the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, housing 103,000 forbidden grimoires inside her very mind. While that in turn allowed her the capabilities of analysing and destroying any spell that came her way, it in turn also allowed her precision when it came to understanding various systems of magic.

While Western magicians, sometimes in order to overcome some problem that could not be fixed using their own style of magic, turned to other foreign legends, it was Index that had the capability of searching out new solutions to new problems using the sources of numerous types of magic from a number of legends and the like.

Thus, when it came to one of the most mysterious magic circles in the magical community, one that had no 'right' way to interpret it, having a complete understanding and gaining the 'right' answer to such a thing was perhaps of great importance to the Anglican church.

Understanding Stonehenge would not only allow the Anglicans to perhaps refine and use Stonehenge for their own purposes but could also allow them complete access to the refined magic of a magical circle that had been here for more than centuries. The amount of latent power that was hidden within would surely provide them greater power than the other two denominations of Christianity; the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches.

Politically, what Index was trying to do today (understand Stonehenge's finer points using the 103,000 grimoires in order to come to a complete understanding about it) was perhaps one of the most dangerous things that could be done.

There was no question what people would try to do to stop her and thus, the reason why so many people had been sent to protect her as she went looking at Stonehenge with the collective knowledge of 103,000 grimoires.

Naturally, it was Stiyl Magnus and Kanzaki Kaori that had put up their hands first when it came to assisting the girl in her own investigation.

"Come on you guys! I'll show you why this is the work of aliens!" Index wasted no time as she ran up to the massive stone structure as Stiyl and Kanzaki followed, keeping an eye out for any enemy forces that could possibly attack them at a moment's notice.

It was unknown if Index could sense what was going on but if she did she hid it well under her perfect smile as she ran to one of the stones and pressed both of her hands against it, feeling the cold stone underneath.

She turned and pouted towards the others, looking at Stiyl first as she narrowed her eyes.

"Why did you come anyway Stiyl? You don't think that Stonehenge was put here by aliens and you don't seem to care. Why join me and Kaori on this expedition?" She titled her head cutely as Stiyl turned his head away from the girl.

He frowned, unsure of what to say. While he could simply tell the truth that he was here to protect the girl, if she did not know that she was in danger than perhaps the safer she would be. In some contexts, ignorance was bliss and Stiyl partially wanted to keep it that way if indeed she was ignorant of the situation that she was in.

The truth of the matter was something that was awfully simple though.

There had been one reason, one main reason why Stiyl had joined the group. And that was simply that if Index was in any danger at all, then he wanted to do everything in his power to protect Index and prevent her from falling into that very danger.

Magicians all had a darkness about them. It was unavoidable, especially when you looked at their magic names and the reasons why they had chosen to become magicians, chosen to throw away their normal lives and choose to delve into the occult.

Fortis931.

I prove why my name is the strongest here.

Stiyl had chosen that name to become the strongest that he could. He had weakness, that much was obvious and he merely wanted to overcome that through the use of magic and to use everything at his disposal that he could get rid of that stigma of being 'weak'. People might mock him for turning to such a method to grow stronger however the fact that Stiyl could kill them right then and there prevented them from doing it.

He had always viewed magicians as an existence similar to himself. Someone that had something that they wanted from everyone. Whenever a magician allied with anyone, it was to advance their own goals. Any association, any connection was done with profit in mind.

Magicians at their core were strictly speaking selfish beings. They acted for their own interests and chose magic for their own personal reasons.

It was ridiculous to think that anyone would chose to delve into magic for anything other than oneself.

And then he had met her.

The Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

Dedicatus545.

The dedicated lamb that protects the knowledge of the strong.

A nun that was cursed with a perfect memory, taking the knowledge of 103,000 grimoires into her mind as to not only protect that knowledge but also to fight against the magicians that sought to use their magic for their own selfish purposes that threatened other lives.

A girl who had the evil of numerous grimoires implanted into her mind yet smiled so perfectly, it seemed as though the world had no such things as war, conflict, pain or suffering. The girl who spoke of things such as hearing the prayers of others in order to save them and ensure that the grace and kindness of God was felt by everyone.

She said those words despite her own situation and she said those words as someone that truly wanted to reach out towards others and merely make them smile.

She said that despite her own situation. She said that despite the knowledge of the darkness of the world that she resided in. And she said that despite having chosen to become a magician to further her own selfish goals.

Honestly, when Stiyl Magnus had first saw her, he felt as though she was nothing more than someone filled with idealistic delusions. And then he had learned about her situation, the pain of 103,000 grimoires within her own mind.

She knew that they were poison and readily accepted that very fact. She understood her situation and what it meant for her.

And despite all of that, she wanted to truly help and save others around her.

Although he would never admit it to anyone, Stiyl truly felt as though Index was a blinding light that blasted through the darkness that he thought all magicians held. It was something that someone as selfish as him should not have been gifted with.

Yet every smile that she gave him was something that blessed his day and every single day he spent with her only made him realise that there was kindness within this very world.

Again, him coming along with her was nothing more than a selfish wish, something that he was born to do as a magician.

But he truly wanted to protect her no matter what, no matter the cost.

For that smile that seemed so radiant, so godly, Stiyl Magnus was willing to watch the world burn.

Because that smile was surely worth it.

Stiyl cleared his throat as he looked away and merely gave a sigh.

"I have no obligation to explain myself to you Index. Hurry up and analyse this gigantic stone mess. The wind's killing me and I want to get out of here right now." He said those words although when he considered his true feelings towards the girl, a burning reached his cheeks that he found he could not get rid of.

Index pouted as she turned away from Stiyl who was clearly upset for some reason as she looked at Kanzaki as she asked the same question to her.

"And what about you Kaori? I mean, it's not like Stonehenge's aliens are going to attack us. You didn't need to come out here with me." She remarked as Kanzaki merely smiled at the girl.

For a similar yet different reason, Kanzaki had decided to accompany Index as well to the famous stone structure.

Although it was something that he did not bother hiding, as a Saint, Kanzaki's magic name perhaps had more power and meaning behind it than Index's or Stiyl's.

Salvare000.

Be the salvation for those that cannot be saved.

As a Saint, blessed with fortune she could not help but think that her own fortune was only at the expense of others. Whenever she was happy, someone else was doomed to be disappointed. Whenever she was protected, someone else was doomed to take the damage that she was supposed to.

It was an endless cycle of her own good luck meaning harm came to innocents, people that she had failed to protect. While she had turned away from that, thus joining the Anglicans and Necessarius, she had still held that wish inside her heart, the wish that she would be the salvation for those that had been abandoned by God.

Yet no matter where she went, she still found suffering. Personally, she thought that the idea that she could escape it altogether was ludicrous but she once more found suffering in the form of a small girl that had 103,000 grimoires jammed into her brain.

Yet, just like Stiyl, she had been breath taken by the fact that she could truly smile purely in spite of that fact.

Whenever she smiled, she always did so with the knowledge that there was evil in her mind yet she did not hate that fact. She did not curse the world and lament on her own sorrowful situation.

She only accepted it, moved on and lived each day as if it were her last. Looking at it that way might have meant that Index was merely someone that was refusing to look at the world in its beauty, only looking it at as if it were the last day however for Kanzaki as she came into contact with the girl, it was hardly the case.

For all intents and purposes, it was clear that Index truly loved her life. She loved what she was doing with it and the people that she spent it with meaning there were no falsehoods in what she was given.

She could not be saved from what lay in her mind. Kanzaki had no way to deal with the brain and she was no party to the Science side meaning that any methods or things related to the brain were beyond her capability to understand.

But Index accepted that she could not be saved yet still made her way and forged her own goal, being that of saving others. She wanted to be a disciple of God, someone that would do His bidding and ensure that His subjects were able to smile in the face of the pain that they endured.

Kanzaki was someone with power wishing for perhaps the impossible, the salvation of those that were rejected.

Yet Index was someone that was wishing for the exact same thing, doing so in a different way to Kanzaki despite her powerlessness. She might have hit a wall in regards to her own natural power but she had nothing against it, thinking of other ways for her to overcome her own shortcomings.

In ways, she was much more powerful than Kanzaki, someone that moved forward without ability in their grasp and someone that worked towards making other people happy despite their own suffering.

For that Saint, Kanzaki truly felt as though the existence that was Index was not merely limited to being the library of grimoires. In a way, Kanzaki was somewhat jealous in how she could live her life the way she could and work towards improving the happiness of those around her and dispelling sadness.

Kanzaki Kaori felt as though the true friend that she had found in Index was someone that was her own pillar of support, giving her an ideal to work towards in regards to her own goal. There were no lies when she felt that and only thought of Index as a precious friend that was dear to her.

Although her reason was different, and her reasoning selfish, Kanzaki knew that she would do her utmost best to make sure that no harm would come to Index because of what she held. If what lay in her mind was what made people come after this radiant person, then Kanzaki was determined to make sure that she would be protected.

Not only because she was her friend but also because Kanzaki truly valued what Index stood for and what she was trying to do with her life disregarding the poison within her mind.

"Chances are that you might get lost out here Index so we came to accompany you." answered Kanzaki with that same smile as Index pouted at Kanzaki.

"I-I wouldn't get lost! I mean this is a massive field and even though the magic circle in the middle is something that we don't understand that doesn't mean that I'm going to suddenly disappear without a trace Kaori!"

Index pouted as she put her hands on her hips and turned back to the stone pillar, pressing both of her hands up against it once more as she closed her eyes and her mouth moved ever so slowly.

Mumbling came from her mouth as the ground beneath the feet of Stiyl, Kanzaki and the other magicians (around 7 in total) trembled as they tried to hold themselves steady as they kept their gaze on the girl at the stone structure.

Whatever she was doing, it seemed to be resounding through the earth, through the very magic circle that seemed to cover the entire ground as all voices fell silent as a hum went through the air. Energy that they could not identify resounded around them and touched their skin, making it tingle slightly before disappearing.

Stiyl looked at Kanzaki and noted that she had gripped her nodachi, Shichiten Shichitou tighter as she scanned the area around Index like a hawk as Stiyl found that he had a rune card within his hand as he did the same.

They were tasked to protect the Index however as magicians, they only did things that aligned with their own selfish goals. For various reasons, they had decided to do one thing then and had followed Index.

And it was all to protect her; to keep her and her smile safe.

"Kanzaki, can you get a read? I'm getting numerous flows of mana but they all seem to be coming from the same magic circle beneath our feet." said Stiyl quietly as he moved closer towards his partner.

"It's…." Kanzaki paused for only an instant as she looked wide eyed at the ground as she knelt and touched her hand there. "It's numerous systems. I don't know if it's Index doing it but there are numerous systems passing by through this one circle. I'm sensing….Christianity, Shintoism, Buddhism, Norse, Greek, Roman…..and those are only the ones that I recognise!"

"What? So are you telling me that Stonehenge itself is like…a bank or something? A bank of magical properties and systems?" Stiyl asked his question with a frown as he looked at the ground.

"Exactly. I'm sensing numerous religions, symbols and other legends that are associated with different religions and Idol theories." Kanzaki reported as she stood up and looked at Index as she slowly said inaudible words from where she was standing.

"The Anglicans though have already accumulated the data of the different types of magic that can be gathered here. Are there more that we don't know of?" A voice from behind, from one of the other magicians that had come with them spoke up as Kanzaki put a hand to her chin as the ground continued to hum.

"It's certainly possible. In fact, I'd say it is possible. But…is Index trying to bring out the numerous systems that Stonehenge is compatible with and going through them all to try and understand what is the base system?" Kanzaki asked rhetorically as Stiyl watched his friend with concern.

"This might get hairy. If Index is going through of all her 103,000 grimoires and trying to see if they are compatible with Stonehenge, this could take ages." He remarked with disdain as he looked back at the ground.

"We need to keep on our toes." Kanzaki said to which Stiyl gave an annoyed nod.

"As long as nothing unexpected h-"

Stiyl was cut short as suddenly his entire vision, from out of nowhere, shone with a white light as he felt himself go blinded. He cried out, falling to his knees as he covered his eyes with his hands, trying to see past what his limited eyesight could however black spots danced in his vision and obscured it.

Similar lights came from the others around him as they too fell to their knees, the humming that was coming from the ground seeming to come in all directions now as if Stiyl himself had been immersed in the sound.

"Kanzaki!" He yelled at the top of his voice as he felt something grab his hand, something that he gripped tightly.

A tapping on his arm traced words in English as Kanzaki who had grabbed him spelt out what he needed to do as Stiyl nodded even though it was unlikely that Kanzaki could see as he placed a rune card on the ground and chanted his spell.

"Great pillar of Babel. Head towards the heavens and attempt to pierce through the godly skies!"

Suddenly, just as sudden as the sudden light that had blinded the entire group, a fire pillar rose from the rune card as it sailed through the air, giving the eyes new light to stare at as both Kanzaki and Stiyl felt the warm flames dance near them. The light of the fire was closer to them and seemed to burn into their eyes greater than the sudden flash from before.

Stiyl let the flame pillar burn in the sky for only a few moments before he cancelled it, the remnants of flame disappearing into the sky as time passed.

However, the relaxed nature of overcoming the sudden disorientation was lost as both Stiyl and Kanzaki stood up, pressed their backs together as they looked around each other in their clearing vision. They circled, doing three full rotations as they saw their vision clearing however the only thing that they found in terms of new elements was only the burnt ground in the space where Stiyl has placed the rune card.

"…What the hell was that? Kanzaki, can you see anyone?" asked Stiyl as he continued circling.

"Don't be ridiculous. If I did, you would have as well. The amount of hills that there are in this area are limited and the time to get to one of them after you sent that pillar in the sky was too short for them to get into hiding." remarked Kanzaki as Stiyl concurred.

Someone had clearly sent off the flash of light that had blinded everyone. But after Stiyl had completed his counterattack, both he and Kanzaki had immediately stood up and circled around. There was no time for someone to make an escape.

Yet they saw no one that hadn't come with them before.

So where did their assailant go?

"Mirage-"

"No, I'm getting no heat signatures from anywhere near us where someone could have escaped. There are no mirages or people around that could have cast the spell. Even if they were managing to escape from my heat detection spell, they would not have had the time to go into hiding. We're on a bloody plain. The only cover is the stones but I didn't see anyone there, did you?"

Stiyl asked his question in response to Kanzaki's as she turned towards where Index was, only seeing her in the exact same spot where she had been before, untouched with the ground still humming the same.

He gulped and he heard Kanzaki do the exact same thing as she kept her back facing his yet voiced one question that he did not want to ask.

"Then where did whoever attacked us go?"

Stiyl was silent if only for a moment before he slowly turned his head towards the people that were recovering near where he was with Kanzaki as he narrowed his eyes.

"Do you think we might have someone with us that is acting in their own interests?" he asked slowly as he felt Kanzaki stiffen slightly as she considered the idea.

"Come to think of it, do we actually know anything about these members of Necessarius? The only thing we know is that they came up to us and stated that they were waiting for us and the Index. _There is no evidence that they are in fact with Necessarius_."

"So….is it entirely possible that we and Index are the only members of Necessarius here?" he asked as he turned his head towards Kanzaki slowly as she turned her body slightly as she looked at where Index was.

The girl was unharmed for now but that only meant that whoever had attacked them had not taken the opportunity to attack Index as of yet. And for those magicians, acting on nothing more than their own selfishness, there was only one thing that they could do when faced with the possible threat.

If it was the threat to their own lives, to their friend's lives or Index's life, there were not going to submit and admit defeat.

All in order to protect what they held most dear to them.

"Yes."

Kanzaki's response immediately made the two break contact and face the recovering magicians as Stiyl held out a rune card and placed it on the nearest man's chest as he struggled to get his eyesight back after the bright flash.

"Wha-"

"Are you with Necessarius? And don't piss about. I'll know immediately when you are lying to me. This rune card. My magic is to use this rune card to detect any changes in heartbeat and pulse, causing you to spontaneously combust if you lie to me. So I'll ask again. _Are you with Necessarius_?"

Stiyl spat out those words as he saw the fear in the man's eyes in response to the cold words from the boy however that in itself was enough of a response for Stiyl. While indeed, it was possible for rune cards to be used in such a way, Stiyl had not managed to acquire such runes and even if he had, using such magic was beyond him at this current stage in his life.

If this man was a Necessarius magician, he should have known that.

But the intimidation that Stiyl was giving was merely smoke and mirrors, meant to make the man slip up.

Which it had.

Stiyl suddenly and violently grabbed the man by the front of the shirt as he spoke into his face, spitting almost in disgust that he had managed to be tricked when it came towards protecting Index.

"Are these guys with you? Or are they from different factions?"

"D-Different! I swear! I swear to Odin!"

Stiyl clicked his tongue and threw the man to the ground as he desperately tried to get the useless rune off his chest as he scrambled away from the Necessarius duo as Kanzaki tightened her grip on the blade by her side. Stiyl turned towards her and the both of them knew exactly what was going on in the other's minds.

"I know. I'll deal with the rest. If it's to protect Index….Wait. Isn't there one less from before?" Kanzaki asked as she looked at the rouge magicians that were from different factions as Stiyl looked towards the groups. It didn't take much time before he realised that Kanzaki was right.

There were now 6 magicians from different factions rather than 7.

"Index!" Stiyl's thoughts immediately went toward the worst case scenario as to where the other magician was as he turned his head to where Index was. His face was pale and he felt an unnatural sweat covering his body as Kanzaki turned as well with the same expression on her face before they stood stunned.

Index was where she had been before, unchanged and doing what she had been; analysing Stonehenge's magic circle using her grimoires to gain a greater understanding of it.

And since she was fine and Stiyl had already confirmed that there was no one near her, where in the world had the last magician gone?

"Kanzaki-"

"Stiyl-"

Both of the magicians turned towards each other with confused expressions on their faces as they gazed at the other magicians that were there. They were slowly standing up as they realised that their cover had been blown, even the man that had managed to get Stiyl's rune card off him.

However even as those magicians , a mix of males and females armed themselves, the duo still felt a frown on their face as that question filled their mind as the humming through the ground continued, almost rising up now and filling the air.

Where had that last magician disappeared to?

That was the last thought that they had before once more, suddenly a massive flash of light shot through the eyes of both of the magicians as they cried out and fell to the ground, temporarily blinded from the effects of the light that had suddenly entered their eyeballs.

"Son of a- Great pillar of Babel! Head towards the heavens and attempt to pierce through the godly skies!"

Stiyl chanted his spell once more as another flame pillar shot into the sky as both Kanzaki and Stiyl used the flames to try and focus their vision once more however unlike last time, something else pierced through the air.

The male scream was inhumane as if the man were being subject to the most terrifying type of torture. The scream made the skin on Stiyl and Kanzaki's arms crawl as they desperately tried to look past the light towards where the screaming was coming from as the humming continued.

Stiyl tried to move first, running past the fire pillar before his vision had fully recovered as he ran towards where the scream was coming from. He gritted his teeth as he stumbled however focused on where the scream had come from, only one thought filling his mind.

If whatever was attacking the armed magicians by attacking them through the time that they were blinded from the light, then there was no telling what would happen if they came up against both Kanzaki and Stiyl. It was undetermined if they could win but right now, there was someone that was perhaps in the greatest danger.

The only non-fighter, Index.

And there was no way in hell that Stiyl was going to let something happen to her on his watch.

It seemed as though the feeling was mutual as Kanzaki ran by his side and lifted him slightly as the both of them utilised her Saint speed to head towards where the screaming was coming from. They crossed the gap in an instant however the moment that they reached the place where it had been coming from, it disappeared.

The scream lingered in the air for only an instant as both of the magician's vision slowly returned to them as they looked at the spot where they had reached. They stood stunned and confused at the scene; this was surely where the scream had come from.

So where was the man that had made it? Where had he gone?

Stiyl gulped as he looked around frantically, up, down and all across the plain he was on.

Yet there was nothing.

Nothing to suggest that anyone had been there nor that anyone had left in the first place.

The man had literally disappeared in a flash of light, the only remnant of something happening to him being the scream that he had left behind.

Stiyl gulped as he counted the people that were left.

He, Kanzaki, Index and 5 other magicians. They were down two and it seemed as though those two had merely disappeared into thin air without the others realising it.

A thought came to his mind as he slightly trembled, turning towards Kanzaki and seeing that probably the same thought appeared in her own mind as she felt the boy's gaze. She returned it with a disturbed gaze.

"Stiyl….this might seem to be a stupid question."

"I….refuse to accept this. There is no way. There is no way!" Stiyl sounded desperate and he knew it but Kanzaki still continued with that shaky tone as she, a Saint pondered the impossible.

"Do you think…that Stonehenge was built by aliens?"

The stones of Stonehenge, at least the ones in the inner ring were reported to have come from a location that was around 320 kilometres away from where Stonehenge was actually located. Each of those stones weighted around 4 tons yet they had somehow been transported that distance towards where the stones now stood, arranged in such a fashion that had mysterious magical significance.

Question:

How did the people that constructed Stonehenge then, around 3000 or 2000 BC manage to lift those stones that distance?

Did they have help?

And if they did, where did that help come from?

The image of octopus-like beings came to mind as the humming that was echoing through the air seemed to gain greater meaning as the two magicians felt that they were in the presence of something larger than they could ever hope to be.

"I refuse….to accept it!" Stiyl shouted those words as Kanzaki suddenly felt herself tense up as the humming seem to rise from the ground and into the air once more, something that had happened before. Something that had happened before the magicians had disappeared.

The magicians that had disappeared without a trace, seeming to have just vanished into thin air without a trace and without any evidence suggesting that magic had been used whatsoever. It would have been sensed, even with this massive magic circle going through numerous disciplines and mana related to them in order to try and understand the Stonehenge circle.

Another question:

What if those magicians had been taken?

What if they had actually been abducted by those aliens that built the Stonehenge circle?

It was ridiculous. It was stupid and if someone had told it to Stiyl and Kanzaki they would have laughed and thought that said person was probably smoking something that was bad for their health.

Yet the possibility could not be denied.

It was definitely there and could not be shoved to the side as a pointless theory.

"Here it comes Stiyl! Try not to get abducted!"

"You realise how retarded you sounded when you s-"

A flash of light blinded the two magicians once more as they descended into an unknown hell.

* * *

"Huh? Where did all of those nice foreign magicians go?"

Index was the one that asked that question at her friends as they sat panting in the middle of the plain that housed the stone structure with a confused look on her face.

Both Stiyl Magnus and Kanzaki Kaori were white as sheets as if they had seen something that could never been unseen. They were both sitting on the ground in the darkness as the remnants of the last girl screaming echoed in their ears as whatever had happened to her replayed in their minds.

They were the only ones left and now that Index had left the stone at Stonehenge, the humming had now stopped given that her contact with the Stonehenge magic circle using her grimoires had ended. As soon as she had dropped the contact, she had immediately bound over towards her friends however the concern on her own face was clearly showing in response to the distress that Stiyl and Kanzaki were feeling.

"Are you guys OK….what happened while I was working?" Her voice was oddly soft as the duo tried their best to not think about what had happened to them, unable to find words.

They had been unable to determine what had happened to those magicians that had not been a part of Necessarius. At the very least, something had happened to them that they could not describe but it all had happened the same way; the flash of light blinding their vision and then when Stiyl had managed to focus their eyes on the pillar of fire and they ran towards where they were hearing screams from, they found nothing to suggest that there had been anyone there in the first place.

They had honestly disappeared off the face of the earth.

And there was no explanation that either Kanzaki or Stiyl could come up with.

"F-Foreign?"

Stiyl managed to choke out a word as Index rushed towards him and looked him straight in the face.

"Yes. They were foreign. Didn't you notice that their magic wasn't from the Anglicans? They didn't attack us or anything from the start so I felt as though everything was fine but….where did they go? Kaori?" Index turned towards her friend as the Saint blinked and tried to compose herself.

"H-Hahaha. I truly have no idea Index. Stiyl and I are fine. We'll be fine. We'll be fine." Kanzaki repeated what she said as she slowly stood up and faced the grimoire library with a strained smile on her face that made Index only look at Kanzaki in even more concern.

"What happened? Where is everyone? I-Is this my fault?" Index started to suddenly find that her own voice was rising as she asked her friend what had happened as Stiyl rose and placed a hand on her head that silenced her voice. He stared down towards her and closed his eyes, breathing deeply as he threw all unnecessary thoughts away.

While brooding could be done on the matter in his own time (something that he would dedicate a lot of time to), it was Index that was standing before him right now.

He honestly had no comprehension of the events that had happened today but at the end of the day, right now that didn't matter. He knew Kanzaki felt the same despite what they had managed to escape but the fact of the matter was that he had made it back to safety.

He had made it back to the space that he had wanted to return to with all of his might. Index was worried for them as they were not saying anything regarding what had happened but Stiyl truly wondered whether or not they had to.

After all, whatever had happened, they had made it back to this very spot.

As primarily selfish beings, magicians usually acted for or against certain parties in order to accomplish selfish goals that they had.

So if that was to be taken at face value, then what did Stiyl Magnus and Kanzaki Kaori fight for the entire time they were facing this crisis that had presented itself towards them?

Naturally, they fought for their own lives.

But not only that, they fought so that they could protect and once more return to the same side as that smile that had shone through the darkness for them. The same smile that seemed to override any preconceptions that they had about the world around them.

They had desperately wanted to return to the side of their friend.

It had driven them and given them the power to act in a time of crisis and that was all that they needed.

As selfish beings, a goal was what was required to act in the face of danger. And they had acted because they had had that very goal.

It could not be mocked, slandered or look down upon because it was their reason for fighting. As magicians, it was their core and it was what separated them from everyone else.

It was merely that important to them.

And once more, Stiyl took action towards trying to protect it.

"Are you an idiot?" he asked in as natural a voice as any other. "Those guys decided that since you were taking so long, that it was best to leave. Do you know how long Kanzaki and I have been waiting here for you to be finished? Honestly, have some thought for others once in a while." Stiyl spat out those words harshly as Index blinked in confusion as Kanzaki coughed to the side.

"Indeed," she remarked as she slowly regained her composure and stood up. "Index, did you think that you could have done the process a little faster?"

"A-A little faster!? I had to sort through 103,000 grimoires! That's not something that you can do instantly!" Index felt her own shocked voice rise through the air as Stiyl and Kanzaki merely sighed as they looked at each other.

"You're simply not trying hard enough."

"You're simply not trying hard enough."

"I-Idiots! You idiots! I'm leaving! Then maybe you can learn about how hard things can be to be as fast as you can! Even I wanted to get back to your side after this job was done!"

Index grumbled under her breath as she stomped away, leaving the both of them stunned given her remarks as she made her way off into the distance. Although they did not think that they would get to sleep tonight as they brooded over what had happened, Index had definitely said it.

That she wanted to return to the side of her friends after everything was finished.

In a way, their goals were not so different after all. Even though they were magicians, they were bound by a common ideal and a friendship that surely was something that could not be mocked, slandered or looked down upon. They were bound and those bonds would surely never fail to break whatever pressure was applied to them.

And as Index stormed off in clear unhappiness, both Stiyl and Kanzaki looked at each other with surprised faces at what she had said.

They might have thought that their own personal feelings were something that only they felt and were nothing more than embarrassing to say out loud towards others. But confirmation of what they felt in the eyes of the person that had brought them together only filled them with a joy that they could not describe.

And so both Stiyl and Kanzaki smiled at each other, something that they felt they would not do for the rest of the day.

"W-Wait up Index! We were joking! Joking!" cried Kanzaki as she made her way after her friend as Stiyl sighed in exasperation however the remnants of that smile were still lingering on his lips.

He followed after the two girls, coming up to their side as he asked Index a question, although casually in order to make sure that neither he or Kanzaki reacted obviously towards it and thus gave away their distress towards what had happened.

"Say Index."

"What?!" She blurted out that comment with n frown on her face as she found Stiyl looking at her with almost pleading eyes. She was taken aback a bit however the boy merely opened his mouth once more.

"Aliens. Do you…..do you think that they exist? Do you think that they built Stonehenge? Seriously?"

Index frowned at the boy's question, seeing that there was an odd seriousness behind it. She turned and faced Kaori, seeing that the same thing was on her own face but that in turn only added towards her confusion.

Something had happened. They might not be willing to talk about it but something had clearly happened. Although Index wanted to help her friends, if they said nothing, then there was nothing that could be done. After all, they hadn't even asked about the results of her analysis! The results were surprising to say the least however she felt as though those results could wait until later, until after she answered their question.

"Do aliens exist? Hmm…"

She turned her head up to the sky as the magicians that were walking beside her did the same. The night darkness hovered overhead with the stars that twinkled above giving a calming atmosphere to the group.

Index was silent for only a moment before she turned towards Stiyl and gave her answer with a smile.

"I don't know! Well the truth is out there right?"

She looked at Kanzaki with that same smile as the both of them looked utterly astounded given how confident she had seemed about it earlier in the day before they shook their heads and felt their mouths return the smile almost naturally.

They did so without a care in the world and a part of them felt as though that was the right answer.

Right now, their bonds were what joined them and separating or destroying those bonds was something that was going to take a lot of effort overall.

And even if there was something that threatened those bonds, both Stiyl and Kanzaki felt as though they would fight eternally what chose to threaten those bonds. And Index was likely the same.

Because if anything, these moments and the time that they all spent together would forever last in their memories until it was time for them to leave the world for a better place.

Index maintained her smile and took Stiyl and Kanzaki's hands in her own as she swung her arms as the duo did the same although reluctantly as Index hummed as she skipped along with her friends by her side.

That was merely how important those bonds were to them, to all three of them.

Those were the bonds that they would grasp with all of their might and never let go, no matter what the cost.

And those wonderful bonds would surely never fade.

Never.

* * *

**Finito!**

**I know what you're thinking. I'm thinking it too. What in the world was I smoking as I wrote this? I wasn't smoking anything really but I wanted to create a situation in which the relationship of the Necessarius trio came off across as not something being 'slice-of-life'. They are magicians after all and they deal with magical things so I wanted to put something in here that sort of matched that.**

**But I somehow added aliens along the way and things exploded in my mind. I hope that you can accept that. I've probably been getting too much into The X Files re-airing.**

**Firstly, Punitor567 I hope that this met your idea of a request. I dealt with their relationship as the main topic, after all wanting to return to Index's side during the crisis was what drove Stiyl and Kanzaki so it was their core reason for fighting throughout the entire thing. I delved a bit more into their thoughts simply because their thoughts are the only ones that remain of their bonds.**

**Index has forgotten them meaning that while I dealt with her as well (namely that she too treasures those bonds strongly), I really wanted to focus on the other two and their relationship. So I hope that all of you felt as though their bonds were surely something that were tragic enough to be ripped from them and that I nailed what their relationship was in essence.**

**Looking at the last lines with that in mind makes it seem like a death flag doesn't it?**

**But I guess at the same time, the fact that I included aliens as well was something that needed to be addressed. I sort of got an X Files feeling throughout the entire thing so I hope that you can forgive me if you got a bit freaked out but it's to be expected. They've even been mentioned in the canon so it's fine!**

**Still, the truth is out there. Questions such as "How was Stonehenge made?" are all over the place if you look properly but don't think too much into these conspiracy theories.**

**Overall though, despite the weird 'enemy' in this case, I hope that this was enjoyable for you readers.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please.**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**Was it aliens? It all depends on Index's analysis of Stonehenge. While you might think that 'it was aliens', there might also be a magical explanation for what happened. But at this stage, only Index knows the truth if she managed to identify what the Stonehenge circle was all about! It could go both ways though.**


	26. SS: Heavy Object

**And another original!**

**However sorry to disappoint, it's not a continuation from the other original story that I had up. Instead, it's a new project altogether and again, fulfilling something that I have had as an idea and people (well just KurobaraIto) have been asking for; namely a crossover with other Kamachi projects!**

**While there was that massive crossover back in 2015 for the 10th anniversary of Kamachi, I think that within that crossover there was the potential to interact with other characters from the Kamachi-verse in a canon way. Not only that but such a thing also gave way for a way for the different characters to find ways into each other's worlds but this one-shot will mainly be referring to the events of the crossover novel (which I consider canon) called The Circumstances Leading to a Certain Magical Heavy Zashiki Warashi's Simple Killer Queen's Marriage.**

**For these things, I'll be leaning towards more certain interactions than others, interactions that I'm leaning towards because of the Heavy Object anime! However, given that The Zashiki Warashi of Intellectual Village ended, maybe I'll do something for Yukari, Shinobu and the gang in the future. And the special between Touma and other Heavy Object characters that Kamachi wrote was never translated so I guess this sort of fills the gap that was there! Please translate it though someone! We do have the side story though that came with the DVD releases of Heavy Object so thank you Js06 for that!**

**Since this was sort of a request (but more of an original at the same time), I wasn't sure what most of you guys are looking for when I suggest that there will be a crossover between characters. I'm sure people want either humour or action so I balanced between the two but if you want to see something a bit more solid, you'll have to request for something else if you are unhappy.**

**Sorry if you are.**

**I'll note that the world that this is set in is Waltraute's world rather than the world of Heavy Object or another world as it follows and is set in the time during the events of the 10th anniversary, in her world. If you are unhappy about that, please make a note so I can see if I can do things differently. But of course I'll make it clear during the narrative.**

**Note though that I'll be referring to Qwenthur as Quenser and Havia as Heivia for those that have seen the anime and not read the novels. It sounds better phonetically and how Js06 translated it originally so I'll stick with it. FOR THOSE THAT ARE UNSURE ABOUT THIS FROM THE TITLE and don't want to read the books or have not read the crossover, as long as you understand the main duo and the Princess from at least the anime then everything is fine. There are some Easter eggs for novel readers but I hope that it isn't something that detracts from the overall story. This won't be for everyone though as it isn't strictly 'Index' but then again, I consider the crossover novel canon to all Kamachi stories.**

**Here though is the usual Q &amp; A (I'm getting more of these recently):**

**Agent Nine: There is both a magical explanation and a scientific explanation for what had happened to those magicians. But I think that the point of the matter in what we never find out what happened to the magicians is the main point though. But I laughed when you noted it sounded like a horror movie!**

**Before we begin though, I'd like to thank 3 people.**

**PokeRescue18, my beta reader. Seriously man, I can't thank you enough for your work here.**

**You, the reader. And I am eternally in your debt for the contribution that you put into this as well.**

**And lastly, KurobaraIto. I've had the idea for a crossover for a while and I was unsure how to put it but your requests over time have really motivated me to do this!**

**And from me, the one thing that I hope that you will do is to enjoy.**

**I'll be taking a break from this for a while, as is the case with A Certain Unknown Level 0, but I wanted to get this in before the anime ended. **

**EDIT: Also I'm just putting this up here for those that are interested, but I've also put a copy of this story in the crossover section of Index and Heavy Object just in case there are people that are more looking at Heavy Object than Index yet want to see a Heavy Object story. If you've read this in Between the Lines, this doesn't affect you but just giving you a note in case you were interested and saw the story on another page, thinking it was something separate. It's not so just saying. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Heavy Object, A Certain Magical Index or anything in this story. It is owned by the author, Kazuma Kamachi and related parties so don't think that I own it. I, in fact DO NOT. **

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

No Matter Where You Look, Idiots Can Be Found in Many Worlds.  
_A_Clashing_Of_Different_Minds_. - - The Survival Battle of Necessity.

In an unknown location, the sun beat down on those that had the misfortune to sit in the expanse of land that had no familiarity to all but two of them. With sweaty bodies, groaning mouths and an overall state of plain exhaustion, a boy with two older boys sitting next to him slowly looked up in front of him.

They were not even half way to their destination but from their guide, it was clear that they still had something like 5 days left to go before they actually reached where they were going: the human world of Midgard.

Yet even though that was their supposed destination only a few people actually had bothered to try and understand the specifics of what had happened to them.

Even though Kamijou Touma was one of the people that had talked to their guide to determine what in the world had happened, he still looked at the group that was with him even though none of them were in the shade as they sat down.

He, just like the others had been taken from his own world through some means that were still unknown and they had somehow appeared on the ship that was known as Skíðblaðni. That term itself brought back memories of the coup d'état in England but this was a separate and perhaps even more mysterious issue altogether.

He had been taken and had been transported to a world that was deeply rooted in the mythology of the Norse. He wished that Othinus was here with him in order to try and get as much specialist information about this place and its systems however through the use of Index's knowledge and that of their guide; he managed to reach some sort of understanding about the world that he was in.

And that world was that that belonged to their guide, Waltraute who was the fourth of nine Valkyrie sisters of that mythology atop a majestic white horse that was grazing slightly as they all rested. She had brought along a small boy with her, whose name was apparently Jack Elvan. He had said that he was Waltraute's husband however the accuracy of that was completely unknown.

He had tried to probe into it for curiosity sakes last night however had received a beam of light shot from the spear that Waltraute held in her hand. Upon nothing more than instinct, he had held out his right hand and had negated said beam resulting in Waltraute for that night determining that her arch nemesis was to try and understand the physics behind Imagine Breaker.

He hadn't gotten any sleep because of it, Waltraute was constantly eyeing his right hand because of it and his body was probably aching greater than the others because of it. Waltraute had a devilish look in her eyes that truly made the boy tremble but that was apparently the most information he was going to get at this time.

Tired, exhausted and out right fed-up, Kamijou turned his head and looked at the people that were also sitting with him, a group of people that had also been taken from their worlds.

Of the people that were taken from his world, both Index and Misaka Mikoto looked outright exhausted as he was as they sat away from him, sweating in the heat in their white nun's habit and Tokiwadai Middle School winter uniform respectively. They had been bickering back and forth, something that the heat had increased in ferocity and Mikoto looked ready to zap Index with a lightning spear any time soon.

Kamijou hoped that it would never reach that case but more focused upon the others that came from different worlds.

Probably the oldest there, the two college students Anzai Kyousuke and Higashikawa Mamoru as well as the mysterious bunny girl Karen from their own separate world seemed to not really get along. There was a significant distance between Anzai and Higashikawa and Karen and it seemed from Kamijou's own probing that through the 'Absurd' as they had put it, a number of things had happened to the both of them because of Karen in part.

As the de facto leader of the group, they had been rather kind in giving information, something that Kamijou was grateful for but it was Karen herself that seemed unwilling to offer information. In fact, the frequent glances that she gave to his right hand only added to his nervousness given the experience of last night so he felt like dropping the issue entirely.

Near those group of college students and the Bunny Girl was a duo of a boy and a girl, from a different world but from the same world as each other. The boy, Nanajou Kyouichirou and the girl, the self-proclaimed 'Killer Queen' Satsuki were looking around each other in a way that suggested that they felt comfort only in the presence of the other person that was from their world but conversations with the both of them went rather well.

While it seemed as though the both of them had a screw loose in the ways that they had mentioned that Nanajou had the ability to not die when killed (or rather have attacks that were supposed to kill him always miss his vitals) and that Satsuki had a fondness for military rubber ropes (which Kamijou wanted to comment on but didn't for his safety) it seemed that the both of them were pretty average people.

Yet although he said that, the expressed wish of Satsuki as to examine his right hand after it had blocked Waltraute's beam of light to see what would happen when it was crushed caused Nanajou to hold her back while Kamijou had retreated boldly.

Closer to that group and Anzai, Higashikawa and the Bunny Girl, was another group, perhaps one of the stranger ones that had been brought to Waltraute's world.

The group of Youkai that hovered around the singular frozen coffin that contained the stiff body of the boy known as Jinnai Shinobu sat calmly as the boy inside literally looked like he was in some cryogenic prison. Without tiring or complaining, the two Youkai that had been brought here; the Zashiki Warashi Yukari and the Yuki Onna said nothing to each other or made any attempt to converse, the only words being said from their mouths being the yandere-like speeches that the Yuki Onna was making to Jinnai inside his ice coffin.

Last night as well, Kamijou had tried to make conversation with the two of them given that Jinnai was otherwise occupied and the only one willing to talk had been the Zashiki Warashi and her bombshell body. Although the concept of Packages and other things were a bit hazy to Kamijou, he got the general gist and thus the overall situation that those people and spirits had faced in their own world.

Yet, just like the others, those Youkai and Kamijou felt as though it was perhaps safe for them to stay away from his right hand. Despite them being from different worlds, given that Youkai were spirits and thus paranormal existences, it seemed perhaps dangerous to see what would happen if they came into contact with Imagine Breaker and thus he left it at that.

For all those different worlds and how things in their worlds were both similar and different to Kamijou's own to a surprising degree, there was one final world that had residents brought into this world without their permission, two of the residents of that world sitting side by side with Kamijou as they conversed and Kamijou joined in.

To his left, a boy, Quenser Barbotage and to his right a boy known as Heivia Winchell. The two of them seemed rather normal despite their young age and baggage that consisted of weapons that, according to them were from the Legitimacy Kingdom, suggesting that they were soldiers.

Upon asking last night (which for Kamijou had been the night where he had gotten to know those that travelled with him for the time being a little better and learned about their worlds) it seemed as though Heivia was the soldier, or rather a radar analyst, and Quenser was nothing more than a battlefield student even though he also had a double role as a 'combat engineer' when the situation called for it.

Yet the thing that stood out most from their group perhaps came from Quenser's world.

Far from the entire group making a humming noise that was apparently from a static electricity propulsion device allowing for levitation on the ground was a monster that was known as an Object.

Unlike the mechas that Kamijou had seen on TV and in anime, the entire thing was nothing more than a sphere weighing around 200,000 tons, around 50 metres in size covered with an absurd amount of weapons. Yet even those guns that covered the main body were nothing more than accessories, the main cannons being the seven guns that were attached to the main spherical body at the back through the use of arms.

At the base of each of those guns was something like a microscope lens that could rotate like a revolver, allowing the Object, called the Baby Magnum, to fire a number of different guns such as railguns, coilguns, laser beams and even low stability plasma cannons.

It was synonymous with war and inside that very Object was the Pilot Elite, First Lieutenant Milinda Brantini of the 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion. Not only that but it seemed that as a First Generation Object that was built to move on all terrain and withstand all weather conditions, it was nothing more than a monster that Kamijou never wanted to have to face head on in any conflict.

And both Quenser and Heivia had managed to take on a Second Generation Object by themselves numerous times using nothing but explosives and other things. In that sense, it was hard to tell who were the greater monsters. Yet, it wasn't that Kamijou could talk after having defeated Level 5 espers and Magic Gods himself.

It seemed as though radio communications had been established with the Baby Magnum since they had left Skíðblaðni meaning communications with the Object were possible using either Quenser's or Heivia's radios. But right now as those boys sat side by side with Kamijou, their de facto leader, the conversation that they seemed to be having was nothing reminiscent of the wonders of a new world.

They were not thinking of politics, economics or the foundations of the world that they found themselves on. Instead the very base issue of their problem was something that had caused their de facto leader to fall silent as the two soldiers sat next to him, the three whispering in soft tones.

"…Is this it?"

"Yes. This is it. If it's an issue of fighting to the death, I say we deal with the girls first. There's just too much power in between them all."

"Are you kidding me!? The last thing I want is a bunch of filthy guys surrounding me as I survive!"

"But Heivia-san, don't you think that such an opportunity would mean that we would get to know each other better? I don't want the girls to suffer for it though, but I am interested in hearing about your world and the other's a bit more."

"Gross! That's disgusting! That tight level of intimacy is something I only want with a woman in bed rather than someone like you! I've taken on Objects so dealing with a bratty high schooler like you is nothiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!"

With a quick action, Heivia took out his combat knife and moved towards Kamijou as the high schooler let out a falsetto scream and fell back as the groups that were around them watched the exchange with mysterious gazes.

Quenser smiled, rubbing the back of his head with his hand as he laughed nervously, grabbing Kamijou's collar as he pulled the spiky haired boy closer and shoved his face into Kamijou's.

"Shut up! There's nothing we can do! While the last thing I want is Heivia's survival in this case so that I can have the girls all to myself, he can be useful when it counts! Calm down so we can work through this together _and then _we can kill him." Quenser's voice was oddly serious as Kamijou merely trembled in fear at the fact that he probably wasn't joking.

"Y-You're an awful friend! I was joking to at least lighten the mood but you're seriously considering it!"

"That's the normal response to this problem that we're facing right now!" Quenser's voice was hushed as he indicated over to Heivia to put the combat knife away as the boy did as asked and the three resumed their original position of sitting around the handkerchief in the middle of their circle.

And it was Kamijou that got to the heart of the matter.

"So, all we have in terms of food are the leftovers of these flavourless rations?"

Yes.

That was the very basic issue that those world saving heroes and heroines were facing right now. No matter where they were, what situation they found themselves in, it seemed that the rations that they had were the very essence to their survival.

"Who was the one that ate all of the ones that we had?" Quenser asked in a quiet voice while eyeing Heivia as the boy shook his head.

"Wasn't me! Those Youkai said that they didn't need to eat anything so we gave them minimum rations! There are 12 people that we have to feed here using these rations so I'm surprised that we managed to last for more than one meal. Mind you though…the reason why we ran out of them so quickly….."

Heivia said that as he turned to Kamijou as the boy rose both of his hands as he knew exactly what the boy soldier was talking about.

"H-Hey I said that Index was a glutton! She ate most of my share so I barely had anything to eat. This isn't my fault!"

"She is from your world though. Shouldn't you like, put her on a leash or something? Not to mention that human Railgun. How does that even work? With enough output, she could probably function as a walking talking main cannon." Quenser remarked with surprise as Kamijou hung his head.

"I don't want to talk about it. If I suggested such a thing to them, you would be eating me for lunch."

"I'm OK with that."

Heivia made that horrible remark as Kamijou and Quenser shot him a glare as they all started pondering once more how they were to get out of this situation.

"Say, what about your friend? Milinda-san was it? In that Object, how is she even supposed to eat anything? She is nothing but skin and bones right now is she?" asked Kamijou towards Quenser as he felt worry for the person that he had never met however Quenser's radio suddenly sparked to life.

Kamijou had no idea if it was because she was listening in via the bidirectional radio or because the numerous cameras on the body of the Baby Magnum had managed to see the dilemma that the heroes were facing but she spoke through the radio towards the trio.

"I'm fine in here. I replenished my stocks before we suddenly got here so don't worry about me."

"Replenished?" asked Kamijou with a tilt of his head.

"We told you before didn't we? Objects are synonymous with war. Wars can last for days and in case that happens, the Elite herself needs to be supplied with rations and the like to make sure that she at least is satisfied in the battle." said Quenser with a sigh as he was made to explain things again as Kamijou looked up in pity at the Object.

"Poor girl. Having endless supplies of these flavourless rations must be hell. Wars really are hard aren't they?" Kamijou vaguely remembered his own experiences during World War III as Heivia shook his head and let out words in a solemn voice.

"It's hardly that hellish. In the Object itself, the Elite needs to have the best of the best. With microwaves, fridges and even massage chairs, the cockpit of an Object is basically a 5-star hotel built for the sole purpose of holding that specific Elite. Hey Princess, have you already had lunch?" Heivia turned to his own radio as he spoke and the girlish voice responded.

"Yes. The spaghetti needed to be finished off but I have to say that I won't order this meat sauce again. I am still a bit peckish though."

Kamijou's mouth dropped in response to what the Princess said as he felt tears well up in his eyes as he looked at the pitiful food that was in front of him right now. The comparison was too cruel and all of a sudden, he had the uncontrollable urge to choke Heivia that had incited the Princess to say those harsh words.

"Isn't there anything we can eat?!" Kamijou yelled into the air. That attracted the attention of all the others who groaned as they figured out what those heroes had been facing silently.

"Wait, have we run out of food?" (Anzai).

"That's a problem for the humans isn't it?" (Zashiki Warashi Yukari).

"Kyouichirou…..do you approve of fresh meat?" (Satuski).

"….Is that glance at me supposed to have some sort of hidden meaning?" (Higashikawa).

"N-No! I'm the one that's going to kill him so I'll deal with anyone else that thinks otherwise!" (Bunny Girl Karen).

"Uhhh…..so….hungry…" (Nanajou).

"Why did we run out of food anyway!? Wasn't it your fault you gluttonous nun? I saw you eat most of that idiot's share you Silver sister!" (Mikoto).

"Toumaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Why have we run out of food? And that annoying Short Hair is calling me mean names still!" (Index).

"Heh heh heh heh heh. I don't need anyone else. Shinobu…..stay with me forever…." (Yuki Onna).

Index suddenly approached Kamijou as she bit onto his arm lightly, unable to use her proper strength to attack the boy however Kamijou merely tried to push her away slightly as he sweat dropped.

He turned his head towards Waltraute, her grazing horse and Jack as he frantically tried to figure out a way out of this using his position as the de facto leader which unfortunately meant that most people were looking at him for a solution.

"Um…Waltraute-san? Isn't there any type of food source around here?" he asked as he felt Index's teeth sink into his arm a bit deeper as he tried to push her away. The others had gotten used to the nun biting the boy without a reason whatsoever however some of them truly wondered how close Kamijou and Index were, not to say the relationship between Kamijou and Mikoto.

"Hmm?" Waltraute looked up from her horse as she pointed off into the distance towards a forest that was there. "I've heard that here in Jötunheimr there are a few fruit trees. But the obvious danger there is that this is the land of the giants. I'm not sure if what you find will be massive piles of fruit or the dead body of a giant but if you were looking for food that would be the best bet." Waltraute gave that remark as Jack from the back of the horse smiled and spoke.

"The giants are nice people so don't go attacking them you know!"

The group had a hard time believing that but it seemed as though the forest that was in the distance was the only source of food that they had. Kamijou turned to Index with a smile as he lightly pushed her away before she did some damage in this world that would never be fixed as he tried his best smile.

"W-Well there we have it. The best option that we have for food is over in that forest there. I'm not really for the possibility of running into a giant but beggars can't be choosers. So, who wants to come and search for food?!"

Kamijou tried to sound excited as he stood up to rally some kind of support however found that the entire group suddenly turned away and started talking to those that were from their own world as Kamijou went wide eyed at the clear fact that they were ignoring him.

Were they?

No, it was unlikely. Th-they were probably all just tired and didn't hear him!

"I said, so, who wants to come and search for food?!"

Again, the group of world saving heroes and heroines said nothing to the boy as they merely talked or bickered with each other in a clear attempt to ignore the boy who was obviously trying to act as the gentlemen in this situation.

Almost panicked now (for Kamijou it was more of a certainty that he would run into a giant if he was alone given his misfortune) Kamijou tried once more with a shaking in his voice accompanied by trembling in his body.

"I…I said, so, who wants to search-"

"We heard you! Can't you take a hint that no one wants to do it?!"

Everyone yelled at him however the fact that no one wanted to leave meant that for those lazy people, it was only through physical persuasion that Kamijou Touma actually gained the courage to head off towards the forest in the distance.

* * *

"So!? Why did we have to come along!? This sausage fest doesn't suit my tastes whatsoever!"

Heivia Winchell spat out that comment as he walked towards the forest with Kamijou Touma and Quenser Barbotage by his side. While the latter clearly had a face that suggested that he wanted to do nothing but complain, the former had rips in his clothes that had arisen from the Great Brawl that had happened only moments before.

While he had been bitten, electrocuted, strike with a beam of light, struck with Youkai strength, frozen, almost crushed and beaten from numerous sources the rather light wounds that he had were ridiculous given what he had been made to endure.

"Say," asked Quenser as he ignored his partner's comment. "What do you think would happen if you took on a main cannon blast?"

"That wouldn't even be a part of a tsukkomi and boke sketch. Are you trying to kill me?" Kamijou asked as he blew on his wounds and watched the Baby Magnum trailing behind the three boys as they walked towards the forest.

"As for why I need you guys, look at the height of those trees! If this really is the world of giants, do you think that those fruit are going to be chest height? I'd rather avoid having to climb an entire tree to the top and getting fruit down so using your rifle there Heivia-san will be the best bet. And if we come across a giant, using your Hand Axe or the Baby Magnum will be the best way for survival Quenser-san." Kamijou reported.

"So in the end we're once more heading towards certain death because of a commanding officer's idiotic plans. Understood." replied Quenser in a dead voice as Kamijou chuckled slightly.

"I-It's not that bad right?" He asked however the silence that he got from the others was merely an answer for him as he turned his head around and looked at the Baby Magnum.

"Y-You don't mind do you Milinda-san?"

"I feel as though this is a waste of fuel but if Quenser is going, then so shall I." Her cute voice responded through the radio as Quenser gave a sigh in response and Heivia a sigh as he felt as though he wasn't loved given the situation.

Silence filled the travelling group as Kamijou found it hard to try and strike up a conversation, speaking off hand in an attempt to try an ice breaker to destroy the awkward situation that he found himself in.

"You know; I've actually met you guys before. I'm pretty sure that there are movies about you guys where I come from. Not to mention, I'm pretty sure that there was a TV show with those Youkai over there. I'm not sure about the other guys but it's possible that even they have some sort of fictional adventures in my world. I never thought that it was possible that they could have a non-fiction element on another world though."

Kamijou said that off-hand comment as immediately the two of them turned towards Kamijou with a sceptical look in their eyes.

"Are you serious?" asked Quenser. "They made a movie about us?"

"Well yeah. They are sort of B-grade films but they have their own appeal. I'm not sure how accurate they are. What has happened to you recently? That would be able to give me an idea if what the movies did were true in your world." asked Kamijou as Quenser frowned.

"Heivia, you're the soldier. Where are we going now? The last Object we faced was the Megalodiver. The only thing that I care about is the Gigant Hustler that's happening soon though." **[1]**

"I heard our large-breasted commander, that's Frolaytia we told you about, is sending us to the White Sea District in the Arctic."

Quenser and Heivia gave those overviews of their situation as they looked at Kamijou with interested looks even though they tried to give off an air of not caring. Anyone who had suddenly learned that there was a movie about them would surely become interested and their gaze at Kamijou who was trying to remember what movies he had seen reflected that.

"Megalodiver? That name doesn't really ring any bells. I remember seeing this one where the main cannon was a lower-stability ion cannon." remarked Kamijou as he tried to remember what it was that he had seen in the cinema about those two idiots.

"Ion cannon? I haven't seen one of those. Say, me in the movies….have I had sex yet? No actually come to think of it, if you saw the movies that were about us, why were you so interested in our world? Surely you know of everything!" said Heivia in surprise.

"Why are you so interested in that sort of thing!? Are you a one trick pony that only has a focused mind when it comes to things about girls?! And as for me asking you things, do you really think that the cinema is the most reliable source of information? Hearing that Objects can take on a nuke has a bit more credibility to it when you're speaking to someone while looking at one in real life." said Kamijou as he glanced back at the Baby Magnum before looking at Quenser.

"Ion cannon? How would that even work? *Pant* I get the feeling as though the amount of heat it generates would need to have the entire cannon moulded to fit the situation. *Pant pant* No, what kind of reactor would they even need? Using the JPlevelMHD, you'd need to calculate and spread the effects across the entire Object. How would that even be designed? *Pant pant pant*."

Quenser had suddenly started foaming at the mouth and was whispering things under his breath as it seemed as though he was on the verge of drooling. No scratch that, he was actually drooling now as Kamijou edged closer towards Heivia.

"Hey hey. Is he….alright?"

"He's always like this when you get him started on Objects. He's a student remember? But that's what has happened to us. What about you? Maybe you exist as a fictional person in our world like we do in yours." said Heivia as Quenser suddenly came out of his trance and looked at the boy.

"Me? I've just come out of hospital. The details are vague but I'm pretty sure it had _something _to do with the girl called Mitsuari Ayu…." **[2]**

Both of the soldiers looked at each other with confused gazes as Quenser spoke up from where he stood.

"But, if we exist as fictional people in your world, maybe there are some things that are true in your movies that have not happened to us yet. So? How about it?! Am I a designer yet!? Do I have a mansion filled with maids and design blueprints for Legitimacy Kingdom Objects?!" asked Quenser enthusiastically.

"No….."

"Hey, hey! Do I at least have the rights to my family!? What about the Vanderbilt situation? At least tell me I have a mistress!" Heivia asked with desperation in his eyes as Kamijou slowly backed away from the two of them.

"Wait, hang on there."

All of a sudden Quenser's radio came to life as Milinda Brantini spoke through the Object towards Kamijou in what seemed to be a rather reserved voice.

"N-Not that I'm interested but is there any chance that an Elite such as myself is closer to someone in my battalion than anyone else?" asked the Princess.

"Hang on right there! Are you sure you want to rely on a fictitious source when it comes to your own lives? I could tell you that in the end Quenser-san and Heivia-san get together so don't rely on what I think and have seen in the movies Milinda-san." remarked Kamijou, perhaps sensibly.

While it was possible that the things that Kamijou knew from the movies were true or had yet to happen for Quenser and Heivia, telling them right now did not mean that they would come true. In fact, telling those idiots of what he knew could possibly make them think that they were guaranteed to get it and overconfidence on the battlefield was sure to kill them.

So in order to try and make sure that they had the best chance of survival and did not listen to the things that Kamijou had only seen in the movies, he remained as gentlemanly as he could. He might not see them again but if they died because of something that he said then he would never live it down.

All three of the foreigners fell silent at what Kamijou had said as both Quenser and Heivia looked at each other with pale faces.

There was a click in the air as Kamijou turned his head and gagged as he saw that one of the smaller cannons that covered the Object was pointing straight at him in a gesture that clearly showed malice. No, it was just pointed in his direction right? It could be aiming at anyone! Right?!

Without warning though, he suddenly felt someone grip the front of his jacket as he was pulled closer toward Quenser as the boy started to laugh deeply, having brought out a clay like plastic explosive from the bag on his back. It was Hand Axe, with a gram of the stuff being more expensive than a gram of platinum.

"Please repeat what you just said."

"Eh?"

There was a click from the side as Heivia suddenly took off the safety of his rifle as he held it by his side, finger of the trigger. His face twitched and was clearly pissed as Kamijou turned back towards Quenser as the plastic explosive hovered near his head.

"Did you just say that in the end, the final pairing is me x Heivia?"

"I didn't know you swung that way Quenser." The Princess's deadpan voice came from his radio as he shouted back at it.

"I don't! I love tits and armpits! Gimme tits and anything with a vagina! In order to determine the truth of the matter, we have to get the information straight from the source! SO! ANSWER MY QUESTION!"

Quenser's voice was oddly high pitched and his eyeballs bloodshot as Kamijou had no idea what in the world was going on.

"Wait just a minute! I was just saying that you shouldn't believe what I say just because it comes from a movie!"

Heivia pressed the rifle barrel up against Kamijou's forehead with the same ghastly expression on his face as Quenser's only adding to Kamijou's fear in the situation.

"Answer. The. Question. Or we'll feed you to the Princess."

"Why are you guys so up in arms about this? I get that you might not swing that way but this kind of reaction is too far left field! Besides, I think that you guys are great myself and there's nothing stopping you from putting yourself out there, with girls or otherwise."

"Quenser, Heivia. Step back. I'll blow him and whatever secrets he has out of him where he stands." The Princess gave her comment with a cold tone as Kamijou trembled at the thought of being shot by an Object as pressure came from all sides.

And the only thing that he could do in the face of those serious people was merely smile awkwardly and chuckle in despair.

"Such misfortune."

* * *

The misunderstanding had been resolved and the truth had come out, giving relief to the trio of Quenser, Heivia and the Princess in the Baby Magnum as they walked along towards the forest in the distance.

This was of course not without casualties as they dragged the limp body of Kamijou Touma behind them using one of the military rubber ropes that they had borrowed from Satsuki. Bruises covered his body and he let out a soft groan from where he was being dragged.

Upon learning that the final pairing was in fact not Quenser x Heivia, the mood of the trio had drastically improved as Kamijou on the ground was spoken to by the older boys as he found himself suddenly not having to walk and thus save energy.

"Say Leader." Heivia was the one that spoke out to Kamijou as he coughed on the ground while being dragged by the boys.

"What?"

"Why did you even have us lug around this rope? That so-called 'Killer Queen' was pretty upset when you asked her to give it to us." He noted as Kamijou merely rose an eyebrow.

"I thought that was obvious. How do you think we are going to get the food to the others? This is the realm of the giants according to Waltraute-san so I don't want to have to come across an apple that is as big as a tank and have to move it myself. We're going to have to try and find a way to attach it to the Baby Magnum and have Milinda-san take it there for us." replied Kamijou as a displeased response came from Heivia's radio.

Perhaps to allow communications between them and her to be easier, Quenser and Heivia constantly had their radios turned on and connected to the frequency of the Princess's Baby Magnum meaning that it was easy to communicate back and forth without having to constantly reach for the radio to turn it on, especially with the bidirectional functionality of the radios.

It was that connection that the Princes spoke through with a displeased voice.

"So in the end I'm nothing more than the baggage handler and rifle holder? Objects are hardly used for hunting so I feel as though this is a waste of bullets and tax payer's money." she complained without a change in tone.

"It's not like he cares though. After all, he's not the one that has to report back to our large-breasted commander about why we suddenly disappeared with the Object and returned with it missing a few expensive shells." said Quenser back towards Kamijou as he pulled violently, causing Kamijou to be pulled along the ground rather violently.

"Hey!" Kamijou said both in response to the action and the words. "If there was something I could do I would. Do you want to exchange email addresses or something? Phone numbers so that I can make it up to you guys somehow?"

"How would that even work? Do phone numbers connect between worlds? We'd have to be within proximity to each other, not to mention it's unlikely we're getting a signal out here." remarked Heivia.

"Weren't you downloading that porn video before though? Where did you get the Internet connection?"

"Hnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn! Because of you, that video was never fully downloaded so I can't access the file! Why is it always the good natured ones that end up creating the biggest mess at the end of the day? Pacifists such as yourself would never survive in our so-called clean wars." Heivia spat out those words as Kamijou found himself unable to reply.

Given what they had told him, it seemed as though a normal high school student such as himself would be instantly killed in the age of Objects. With a practically useless right hand against them, there truly was nothing he could do in such a world and thus entirely possible he would be killed the moment a battle started.

"Give him a break Heivia. He's trying his best given the situation at hand. I'll trade numbers with you Kamijou. You never know when something like this might come in handy later on. Maybe we'll have to wait for the 20th anniversary?" Quenser said that strange remark that probably only he understood as the boys traded numbers, doing so with Heivia as well although reluctantly.

"What about you, Princess?" asked Quenser to his radio.

"It'll just take up space when there is nothing connecting our worlds. But if there is a chance that something can come of it, I may as well. I don't want to have to end up in a foreign world with no contacts like this again." said the Elite as Kamijou and the Princess traded numbers and email addresses.

Upon seeing that they worked and everything, Kamijou turned his head towards the Baby Magnum as he was dragged along the ground.

"Still, it seems as though you in your world are prepared for everything. What with rations and survival kits and the like." Kamijou said impressed towards the boy soldiers as Heivia seemed rather prideful of that.

"Well sure. We wouldn't be here if we weren't prepared. We've got everything from fishing rods to survival knives and even handkerchiefs that can function as both a sling and filter to stop poisonous gases although in the latter case it barely works. Quenser, you carry around spare handkerchiefs don't you?" Heivia asked his friend as Quenser reached into his own backpack and pulled out two from his survival kit there.

"Here they are. Have one Kamijou. As a little souvenir of our time here."

Kamijou accepted with thanks as he pocketed the piece of cloth that seemed soft to the touch as he still looked back at the Baby Magnum, oddly feeling his gaze constantly drawn there no matter where he was.

"Still it seems as though Milinda-san has the best of both worlds here. The Object cockpit sounds like its own portable paradise."

"It is to be honest. I was hearing that one of the Elites from the Capitalist Corporations got so used to his cockpit that he lived and stayed in there, doing no exercise until his entire body changed to the extent that he could no longer pilot. Peace can be dangerous in itself when it comes to wars." The Princess remarked as Quenser rose an eyebrow.

"How did you even hear about that? Is there some kind of Elite network out there in the world? You wouldn't happen to be connected to the 'Oh ho ho' through that would you?"

"It was a rumour Quenser. And why did you have bring up that horrible person? She's nothing but a liar that's dissatisfied with her own body and her Second Generation has already lost once to mine." The Princess's tone changed slightly as she seemed proud of her own victory as Heivia suddenly dropped his own mood in response to the souring Princess's.

"Damn it Quenser, why do you always have to stick your mouth into it anyway? After all, if the Princess doesn't help us here, the only ones that will not die of starvation are her in the Object, the Youkai and that frozen boy." He complained as Quenser truly looked confused at him, as if wondering why the Princess was so mad at what he had said.

"That is the major worry though." said Kamijou on the ground as both boys stopped and froze, looking at Kamijou who had his arms folded as he nodded while recalling the major problem that they had.

"What….do you mean there Leader?" asked Quenser in a soft voice as he blinked once, clearly unable to register what it was that Kamijou was getting at.

Having had enough of being dragged around, Kamijou stood up and brushed off the dirt that had covered him as he pointed at the Baby Magnum behind him with his thumb.

"Well if we find nothing then we'll have nothing to eat. Even though Waltraute-san said that this was the best place to find food, the fact that she didn't direct us there in the first place at least suggests that no one has really tried to find food there anyway. Chances are we might find nothing or something. Hell, if we find the dead body of a giant, there are some things that I doubt we will want to eat. The body is mainly made of water and there's the issue of fat, muscle and bone. Even if we cooked it, I've never eaten human flesh. At least not from what I can remember. I remember people eating me in Othinus's worlds but never the other way around but it could have happened…"

The last comment Kamijou said more to himself rather than anything as both of the boys went pale as Heivia spoke up with a shaky voice.

"H-Hang on right there. Are you saying that there is a chance that this is for nothing?"

"Well, unless we find fruit or something sure. And I have no idea if the body of a giant is the same as ours so there is that issue as well. I'm just saying how it is though. After all, if it came down to it, would you eat the flesh of a human or something that looked human-like?" Kamijou asked however Quenser merely waved his hand in the air.

"Forget that Heivia! At least our large-breasted commander gives us reasons to go on suicide missions and we can threaten her with groping when we get back! What are we supposed to do against this bastard?"

"Hang on there! I thought you knew our options! Do you know anything about this world?!" blurted Kamijou at the unfairness that was being presented to him.

While he had presented them with reasons why it was possible to not eat giants if they found any and thus the only option they had was fruit (which was something that they may or may not find), he had essentially created the possibility that what they were doing was for naught.

Meaning that in the end, since they probably didn't want to eat the dead body of a giant and if they did not find any fruit, they would end up having no food once they returned to the hungry people and Youkai waiting for them.

Thus resulting in the painful fact that this trip that they were taking was completely pointless at the end of the day if they didn't find fruit.

"You are our Leader! You're supposed to at least have a grasp of this place! What were you doing asking around last night? Were you flirting?!" yelled Heivia at Kamijou as the boy shook his head.

"No! I was trying to at least understand everyone and their situations! And why is it up to me to try and figure out everything that's happening in this world? How am I supposed to know whether or not we find something? I was assuming that we were!"

"Don't go all optimistic like that! Taking the worst case scenario into mind is what survival skills are for. You've basically made us walk this entire way without any chance of finding food if we assume there is no fruit! There's no way I'm eating the intestines of a giant! We could get some kind of weird stomach bug unique to this world with no cure!" shouted Quenser.

"I thought you knew that when you came along!"

"We didn't!"

"How is it my fault then?!"

"You goddamn idiot! I'm slitting your throat and we'll cook your remains for lunch!"

"I'm thinking that you're bringing out your combat knife there to only support your joke so you don't need to approach like that!"

Kamijou let out a falsetto scream as a sigh came over the radio, the Princess giving a comment as she saw the sight of the two idiots wasting energy as they chased the spiky haired idiot around.

"So are we going forward or not? I'm a bit hungry myself now so I want to at least nibble on something."

"Shut up!"

Kamijou suddenly turned towards the only person there that had a decent meal inside the cockpit as she unknowingly bragged at those without food for the moment since they had not gathered anything. He pointed straight at the Baby Magnum with bloodshot eyes and yelled straight at it.

"This is the problem! Stop talking about food when we don't have any! It's worse than torture, especially when we're trying to find some but don't know if we will! In fact, the only proper source of food that we have is the food inside your cockpit and Waltraute-san's horse!" shouted Kamijou as both Quenser and Heivia froze as they looked at each other.

The desperation was evident on their faces as they turned toward Kamijou with a low tone in their voices.

"Hey, that's our last option isn't it?"

"What is, Quenser-san?"

Quenser did not answer as he and Heivia turned off their radio's bidirectional functionality, disconnecting their connection to the Princess for the moment as they suddenly seemed to gain a dark aura around them.

"Don't be ridiculous Sir Knight. What are you going to do when you betray the Princess you worked so hard to save? Not to mention that that's an Object! Are you forgetting the most important point of all?!"

"There are some things that bonds need to be broken for. If we're assuming that there is no fruit, which I am, then the only thing that we can have to eat in inside the Princess's cockpit. Unless you want to be zapped by that beam of light again after attacking that Valkyrie's horse. If it's a question of an Object against that Valkyrie, which one would you choose?"

Heivia seemed stunned at the options that he was given, putting a hand to his chin and giving it serious thought. After having been struck by that beam of light from Waltraute earlier, he knew that while he was into that sort of stuff, falling unconscious or dying from the first blow did not satisfy his particular niche. Yet…..the alternative was an Object!

Heivia seemed to fight with his inner self and desires as Kamijou spoke up from the side in confusion.

"Hello? What are you talking about?"

"What do you think?" Quenser said that toward Kamijou with an exasperated look on his voice as he tried to turn away from the Baby Magnum's cameras. Upon seeing that Kamijou was not getting it, Quenser tried once more, trying to make it clearer.

"We're talking about trying to get inside the cockpit of the Baby Magnum and holding the Princess at gunpoint to make her give us the food hidden inside that paradise. We could probably ask her but she might selfishly give us only the bad stuff! To get the best out of her, it's what we need to do."

Kamijou blinked once, turning slowly towards the Baby Magnum, the 50 metre spherical monster that weighed around 200,000 tons with the hundreds of smaller secondary cannons and the 7 main cannons attached to the back, any of which could kill him instantly from merely a shockwave.

His mouth dropped and he shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?! Are you insane?! And you said I was crazy!"

"That's right though Quenser. How are we going to do this? This is directly related to our survival if we have no food given no one's going to eat a dead giant if we find one and assuming that we find no fruit. It's going to be harder than directly destroying its reactor. Not to mention Frolaytia will be beyond pissed if we manage to do it."

"And here I thought that you would be the one to suggest running away or abandoning the idea first."

"You see it on all of those survival shows in the safe countries, but drinking urine is definitely something I am never doing. Not when there is a perfectly good source of food hidden in that cockpit. It's a question of priorities and even then I doubt the Princess is going to kill us without hesitation. At least, that's what I'm going for. And given the alternative is that Valkyrie's horse, I'm naturally going to choose the option that gives me the greatest chance of survival. But saying that when referring to an Object….just what type of world did we find ourselves in Quenser?"

"A-Are we seriously thinking of this? Seriously!? You said that the Baby Magnum and Objects could take on nukes so what are _we _supposed to do!?"

Kamijou screamed at the impossibility of the task and while they did have a source of food inside the Object, his more gentlemanly side that wanted overall peace between comrades was at least trying to imagine that they would find at least find fruit to eat instead of nothing as Quenser and Heivia were thinking.

However, those two idiots that were thinking nothing of others formed their own plans silently. While it was possible that they would never truly think of ever doing this on a normal occasion, it seemed as though circumstances had changed to the extent that warranted this change over them.

Kamijou Touma was seeing perhaps a rare sight, the Dragon Killers seriously thinking of dealing with an Object that was not threatening their lives. Many people would perhaps have trembled at that sight but the intensity that was on the soldiers' faces only made it seem comical.

Quenser Barbotage and Heivia Winchell though simply ignored Kamijou's childish whines.

"The obvious question is how are we going to get the Princess out of her cockpit? I doubt she'd just let us in."

"Can't we force an emergency ejection?"

"With what? We might have a chance if we threw those Youkai at it but right now all we have if your armoury and my Hand Axe. I'd also like to prevent damaging the Baby Magnum in case there is any trouble in the future. The Princess is human just like us Heivia."

"Well said Sir Knight. But you're just making it harder for yourself there. You want to get inside an Object's cockpit, preserving the Object. If we were back home and facing an enemy Object, either I would be the first to kill you and run away from that idea or you'd get a medal. Even though you managed to do it back in Alaska with the Rush."

"I'd probably never suggest it back home what given the crisis situations and the like, even though the Rush was a special case. At least we can hope the Princess won't kill us. Right?"

"I don't think she has a stop button there Quenser. But seriously are we really thinking of doing this? Even me? Food really changes what drives a person."

"Nukes! You said nukes! Like BOOM nukes! Mushroom cloud nukes?! A-And if it can withstand that I think that anything going from the guns, explosives, chemical weapons and the military rubber rope that we have is going to do nothing! Are you listening to me?!"

While it seemed as though the panicking role that Kamijou was taking right now was usually taken by Heivia, having someone else take it seemed to make Heivia divert his mind to his own survival.

His own mind was in thought however Quenser blinked, turning towards Kamijou and pointing at him.

"What did you say?"

"Huh? When? The part where I said, I don't know, _this is a crazy idea_?! This is like trying to dig through the earth using nothing but dentures! Even given what I've been through, this is nuts!"

"Chemical…..weapons?" Quenser asked with this head down low as he felt a small smile come onto his lips, something that was matched by Heivia as he got a good look at his partner's face.

While they had been through a lot together, to the extent that one could think of them joined at the hip when it came to crisis scenarios, he knew that look on the student's face.

It was the forming of an idea that was possibly going to allow them to take a chance and survive this; to get the food hidden within the Princess's cockpit.

Quenser though merely placed a hand on Kamijou's shoulder.

"You, my friend," he said. "Are a genius."

"…I've got a _really _bad feeling about this."

Kamijou whined as he looked behind him towards the Object, the First Generation Baby Magnum that was synonymous with war.

"I sense that the misfortune heading my way might seriously kill me."

* * *

"Are we supposed to search this entire forest? It could take days to find what we're looking for." complained Heivia in a surprised tone as he looked at the forest that they had come in front of now.

Quenser and Kamijou by his side looked just as surprised at the gigantic forest that had seemed smaller in the distance. While the trees were indeed things that looked similar to their own world, the fact that they towered well above their heads made it seem as though they were more like skyscrapers that flora.

"We really are on another world aren't we?" said Kamijou as the trees that towered above him put things into perspective.

"Well, this works perfectly with our plan. I think we'll have to put it into effect 'cause I can't see any fruit lying around or up there. We just have to find the element that we need to put it into play." Quenser said that as he turned to his radio which he had switched back on as he spoke to the Princess.

"Hey Princess, how are you holding up?" asked Quenser as a displeased voice was returned through the radio.

"I don't like how you and Heivia were discussing something that you didn't want me to listen to. What were you talking about?" she asked although her tone suggested that she was going to hear the answer no matter what as Quenser looked at Heivia as the Princess added to her words. "That Kamijou boy was making a big fuss about it."

"Well…." Kamijou said as he averted his eyes from the radio, remembering the idea that Quenser had given him. While it did indeed seem like a proper way to allow them the chance to get inside the Princess's cockpit by having her open the barriers from the inside, the fact was that the moment that she heard of it, she was, without a doubt, going to be displeased. Even Kamijou felt as though the idea was excessive but he was pressed from all sides.

The only reason he was going through with this was that the Princess was apparently smart enough to make the proper choice when it needed to be made and thus keep her own life.

"Yeah, you were making a fuss weren't you? Honestly, you're like a little girl sometimes there Leader." said Heivia in an attempt to change the subject, however the Princess caught on.

"Heivia. Stop trying to avoid my question. What were you talking about?"

"Um…..Quenser?" asked Heivia as he glanced at the student who suddenly went wide eyed.

"H-Huh!? Why me? A-Actually Leader, you'd better explain it. After all, it's your responsibility to keep an eye out for us underlings you know." said Quenser as he diverted the bullet as Kamijou's eyes went wide.

"MY RESPONSIBILITY?! W-Well…" Kamijou trailed off as more drops of sweat added to the ones that were already there. The method that they had of taking on an Object was insane not to mention suicidal but they had a definite plan, which was more than they had when it came to the possibility of finding food.

"W-We were talking about the power level of your reactor? A-After all there are different things that you have to consider such as fuel and the output of this JPlevelMHD reactor so I was just thinking what kind of things the Object would be powering and Quenser-san and Heivia-san gave me an overview." Kamijou said frantically as he thought of an excuse, the boy soldiers looking at him impressed as they saw his quick thinking.

Yet that in itself was destroyed by the Princess's next question.

"Why didn't you ask me then? I could tell you that the movement of the power within the Object goes toward much more than the cannons. It goes to my displays, my propulsion device, microwave, fridge, chair, air filters, radios and other things that make my Object the most comfortable place for me." remarked the Princess as the boy soldiers looked at Kamijou once more.

"R-Right. I….I just thought um…that it would be a sensitive area? Yeah! I thought it would be a sensitive area to discuss. I mean, the Object is an extension of your body right? If I went up to a girl and asked her in some way 'What does your body feel like?' or 'What does the inside look like and how does it work?' I'm pretty sure I'd be subject to some kind of punishment."

"….I've never thought of it like that. Quenser, does that mean that in a way you're sending lecherous gazes towards me and the other Elites when you stare at our Objects?"

"I-It doesn't work like that! I'm studying Object design so thinking of the Object, which is a separate machine as a literal extension of your body is ridiculous, even if you might do it! You'd be beyond fat with that 50 metre body!" Quenser yelled.

"Not to mention the weight." Heivia commented although it seemed as though he didn't put too much thought into it as both Quenser and Kamijou stared at him with pale faces. He seemed to realise too late what he had said however the Princess had already taken note of it.

Being on the potential kill list for an Object was a one-way trip to hell and Heivia truly lamented on the fact that he had basically dug his own grave by mentioning the sensitive topic of a girl's weight.

"A-Anyway Princess. Are there some functions that you're not using to save energy inside the Object? I have no idea when you're going to get maintenance next so I would suggest conserving power. Perhaps think about dropping…perhaps things like the music player, any unnecessary cameras near the cannons, the air filter system and the massage function of your chair for now?" asked Quenser carefully as the Princess replied.

"I've been doing that for a while. Even when using my main cannon in the low-stability plasma setting, I'm only setting the electricity through the barrel at half voltage. I don't want to have to run out of power despite my reactor." she replied as Quenser gave a sigh in response, something that was matched by Heivia and Kamijou.

"Hey Princess. Are there any heat signatures coming from anywhere? If there is a dead body of a giant somewhere here, then I'd imagine that their body would be producing a lot of heat." asked Heivia.

"I'm sensing something fairly large around 2 kilometres north-north-west. Do you want to check it out?" asked the Princess as the boys looked at each other with victorious gazes.

"(Hey, hey. Do you think that could be?)"

"(First things first Heivia. We'll have to check it out and then call it in.)"

"(Are you sure everything is set? I feel sort of bad doing this to Milinda-san. Not to mention to the giant if it is a dead body.)"

"(When she's mocking us silently by talking about spaghetti and massage systems? And besides, dead men tell no tales. The giant isn't going to turn into a zombie and seek revenge on us.)"

Heivia was the last one to make that comment as he rose his head and indicated toward the Princess in the Baby Magnum.

"We'll check things out ahead so we'll call you when or if we find anything of use. There won't be any high speed battles so don't worry about anything there." he said.

"Then I can finally eat my snack. Viva meatloaf."

The boys grumbled as they made their way forward, moving the 2 kilometres they needed as they looked at the scenery and anything that they could use to their advantage overall however it was hardly before they reached the 2 kilometre mark that they smelled what they were heading towards before anything.

The rotting flesh smell that filled the air was almost overpowering as the boys reached for the handkerchiefs that they had and used them to cover their nose and mouth as they continued to walk forward, through the trees as they saw the sight that was producing the horrible smell in the air.

Needless to say, they were all speechless.

The dead body of the giant had a human like structure, just like they had appeared in stories that they had all read. Its head was lolled to the side however its eyes had been removed, dried blood having formed there already.

It lay on its back however it seemed as though the giant itself covered around 5 metres just by its height, giving a sensation of fear throughout the people that were looking at its carcass. If they thought the Baby Magnum was a monster, seeing a human shape that was that tall was something of a monster of itself.

They had no idea how the giant had died however the sight of what seemed to be a blunt force trauma wound seemed to be shown on its head; it had been caved in giving a rather grotesque sight as gore spread along the ground. Kamijou seemed to recoil from the sight, gulping and sweating nervously while giving silent prayers and looking rather pained at the giant as if he had been the one who had been killed while Quenser and Heivia looked along the body of the giant.

"Say Quenser. Is this what we are looking for?" asked Heivia as he pointed at the figure in shock.

"I'm just as surprised as you are and I came up with the idea thanks to Leader. Still if we want to get the best food that's inside the Baby Magnum, what we need to do hasn't changed." he replied in a serious tone as Kamijou put up his hand that attracted the attention of the other two boys.

"What? Don't tell me you're pulling out now. I get where you're coming from though but I doubt that the Baby Magnum will be literally thinking of killing us if this succeeds." said Heivia as he recalled his own experiences with Objects, perhaps the experience with the Water Strider sticking out the most. Or perhaps the Son of a Bitch that had actually been called the Early States.

"N-No, it's just, how are you going to get to 'that'? I know that it's inside the giant's body but look at it! I imagine that its skin is going to be harder than what your bullets can pierce through Heivia-san. If we had Misaka's Railgun, that might be a different story but there is no such thing right here and now."

Both Quenser and Heivia realised that point as Heivia pointed his rifle at the body of the giant, pulling the trigger as bullets sailed into the giant's side. Kamijou immediately jumped at the sound while Quenser looked rather amused at him as the body recoiled a tiny bit before slumping, blood coming from the wound where it had been shot.

"See? It's fine. What are you worried about? Freaking me out like that…."

"What we're looking for is deeper inside though so Leader has a point." remarked Quenser as he pulled out of his bag a couple of Hand Axes, crushing the squishy substance in his hand. "But if we do this right, I'm sure that we can have access to the 'thing' that we want. The only thing after that is to bring the Princess over, implement the plan and voila! Enough food to go around!"

He placed the explosive inside the wound where Heivia had shot however found that it wasn't large enough. A few more bullets later and the hole was large enough for Quenser to stick his hand through as he continued to cover his mouth with the handkerchief to prevent the smell from getting into his nose.

"Honestly, the things that I do…" He complained as Heivia felt that exact same way as Kamijou stayed far away, truly wondering if defiling this giant's body was the right way to do things. Sure, it was already dead but even so he still felt bad for what he was doing.

"OK, ready?" asked Quenser as he raced behind a tree far away in order to be protected from the blast.

"Sir Knight, whenever you are, I am!" shouted Heivia from behind another tree as Kamijou stood next to Quenser, covering his ears and mouth with his hand and handkerchief respectively.

"May whoever looks over the giants in this world forgive us."

"I didn't realise that you were religious. It seems more like a Faith Organisation thing though." noted Quenser as he set the frequency with his radio to the electric fuse that he had put inside the Hand Axe.

"I'm not. But surely whenever you find yourself doing something you don't want to, you start gaining an open mind to these sort of things. And then there's Index with me, so it sort of rubs off." replied Kamijou as Quenser nodded in agreement.

Although he didn't believe in God or whatever, Quenser had surely directed a few words to that being's name both in the hope of survival or hatred for situations that He put Quenser and Heivia through. They were both surprisingly similar to Kamijou in a lot of ways so Quenser merely told the younger boy to duck down as he sent a silent prayer as well to whoever looked after the giants in this world.

He pressed the switch and the Hand Axe exploded, sending bits of flesh flying in all directions as it ripped a hole in the side of the giant's stomach. The explosion ripped through the landscape, sending dust flying towards the trio as the trees protected them however even then, they could feel the shockwave in their guts, resounding through their bodies. They were far away enough to not be too badly affected but they still felt the light shockwave.

Everyone looked over from where they were as soon as the dust cleared and the shockwave effect's lessened and saw in the mixture of blood something else that was mixing in with it, most likely the stomach contents.

However, when they all saw what they needed to see, Kamijou still getting rather nauseous at the sight and covering his mouth at both the smell and hoping that his prayer was received (in truth he felt as though the actions he had played a part in and the sight itself made him want to throw up). Both of the soldiers gave each other the thumbs up though at the sight, largely unaffected. Just what they been through?

"Alright now, that's the first stage done. The second stage is the usual. Heivia, give us some time to set up before calling the Princess on over." instructed Quenser as Heivia rested the rifle on his shoulder.

"Hey whatever gives me the least work to do. I don't much like hanging around this guy here," Heivia pointed at the giant. "But I still have that video we got from ages ago on my handheld device."

"You managed to download that? I'll have you owe me that later. The whole 'I'm cornered over here' and everything." said Quenser as he took Satsuki's military rubber rope with him as Kamijou followed behind him as Heivia sat back down, looking in disdain at the flavourless ration that he took out as he took a bite.

Even though they were coming up with a plan to get proper food from the Princess's cockpit, he still felt, seeing the dead giant's stomach blown out in front of him that the sensation of food in one's stomach was something that was taken for granted by many.

Despite the fact that some glorious proper food would be coming soon, he wanted to take what he could when he could get it.

"May you rest in peace you gigantic son of a bitch."

And he too also gave that silent prayer despite not being religious to whoever would hear it.

* * *

"Princess, we're good to go. We've managed to get the giant that was over here into smaller pieces so you can come and collect it now."

The Princess, Milinda Brantini heard Heivia's voice over the radio as he reactivated the bidirectional functionality of the radio. For whatever reason, he and Quenser had turned them off when they had entered the forest however she paid it no mind as she moved the Baby Magnum to face the north-north-west where the heat reading from the giant's body was slowly dying.

"Heivia, where is Quenser?"

"He gets all the love huh? Well that's to be expected." remarked Heivia although from his tone of voice, he was rather enjoying putting the Princess in a bad mood with his remark as he answered her question. "He went off with Leader to check out if there were any other giant bodies around."

"You mean the ones that are coming from the east?" she asked as she looked at her monitors, hearing the confirmation that came from Heivia in a light hearted tone.

"Yeah, those one…..Wait. What did you say!? Are you saying there are some giants heading towards us right now?!"

"There are a few kilometres off but they seem to be heading this way." The Princess reported as she made her way into the forest, hearing Heivia's thinking through the radio although wondering where in the world Quenser and Kamijou were.

"Shit….well we have your Baby Magnum so as long as we get what we need then…..Wait a minute. What we need will mean that-!"

Heivia's voice sounded panicked however there was nothing that the Princess could do about that, nor about what happened next, immediately after Heivia made that comment.

Through her cameras, she saw exactly what happened although she personally had never expected it to actually happen at the end of the day. It was through her cameras that she saw something black extend over numerous cameras, all of them being in a horizontal line meaning that whatever had extended over the Object did so in the same line.

Given the size of the Baby Magnum, it pushed through the forest managing to topple over any trees that were remotely near or it its path, using the static electricity propulsion device to push through and over the trees that blocked the Object's path as they were crushed from the lasers that were used in addition to the propulsion device to allow it to move.

The Princess's eyes went wide at the sight of that black line extending over the cameras that were near her smaller cannons however that in itself was nothing that surprising to what came next.

Using her cameras, she managed to find where the black thing was extending from, seeing that it was the military rubber rope that seemed awfully strong coming from two nearby trees that had branches that were around the cannon height of the Baby Magnum. And what she saw there, on both the left and right, standing on those trees….

Were the boys, Quenser Barbotage and Kamijou Touma.

(What are they…..?)

The Princess had that thought however the Baby Magnum did not stop even though the military rubber rope was in its path, merely pushing through it as it made its way to the dead body of the giant that Quenser had blown up the stomach of using his Hand Axe.

The rubber rope was pulled taut, something that, if they had enough strength was enough to allow those boys to treat the rubber rope like a string shot, shooting the Baby Magnum in the direction where it had come from.

However, nothing of that sort would happen against that 200,000-ton mass as the taut rope pulled the boys that were on top of the branches that had extended the rope over the Baby Magnum's body towards its body.

Screams from both Quenser and Kamijou consisting of "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!", "Such misfortuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeeeee!" and "I should have known this would have happened!" came through her radio due to the bidirectional function of Quenser's radio as both of the boys swung towards the Baby Magnum.

Like a pendulum, the rubber rope had managed to catch on the upper side of one of the smaller cannons, swinging both of the boys together as they met mid-way, slamming into each other as they groaned and hung in the air, below the cannon that the rubber rope had managed to catch onto.

Currently, with the rubber rope hanging over one of the cannons, the two boys that were hanging by the rope slowly swung with the movement of the Baby Magnum, hanging by the rope that was attached to the cannon.

"What are you two doing?" asked the Princess as she finally reached the body of the giant that had its stomach blown out, a smell reaching the Princess's nose given that her air filters had been turned off that would have normally been turned on in high speed battle to save electricity in the reactor.

It was then that she noticed that both Kamijou and Quenser had their handkerchiefs attached to their mouths as they swung hopelessly, trying to get on top of the cannon that they were attached to however getting no luck. Either through the use of string or by tying the handkerchief to the back of the head, it covered their mouths and perhaps allowed them to be free from the effects of the smell that was coming through the Baby Magnum.

"D-Don't worry about us Princess! Carry on doing the work!"

"How can I do that? I thought that we were attaching the body of the giant to the Baby Magnum using the rubber rope that you both are on. _What's going on here Quenser?" _The Princess's voice had an edge to it that she normally would not have contained as she looked at the two boys that were hanging from a smaller cannon.

"Cr-Crap! Quenser-san are you sure about this!?" asked Kamijou towards Quenser however it was heard through the radio as the other boy kicked Kamijou in the gut from where they were hanging.

"Shut up! We're so close and like Heivia there is no way that I am drinking my own piss or eating that giant! I'm not even a soldier so there are so things that people do in the military that I refuse to do!"

"So taking down Objects is easier!?"

(Taking down…..Objects?)

That remark from Kamijou, who had earned a few more kicks from Quenser as the two boys hung down from the cannon by use of the rubber rope, made the Princess immediately go on the alert as that smell still invaded the cockpit. She could taste it in her lungs now, meaning that they had begun to warm up her throat but she took no notice, instead looking around the entire Object for Heivia.

But Quenser's partner, the second of the Dragon Killers was nowhere to be seen.

"Quenser!" The Princess shouted however it was Heivia's voice that came through the radio, being sent from quite a distance away and upwards, suggesting that he had climbed a tree although how he had managed to do so was beyond the Princess.

"Qu-Quenser!" Either by mistake or because he was in a rush, the connection that Heivia made was connected directly to the Baby Magnum rather than using the frequency that Quenser alone would manage to hear. The Princess made a note to have Frolaytia confiscate their radios for that and have them both punished however Heivia continued.

"Forget the plan! We have giants incoming, shit I never thought I would say that without referring to Objects, and we need the Baby Magnum! Using my rifle and your Hand Axe is not going to prevent ourselves from being squashed by those giant feet coming our way so take her away! Forget the plan to remove the Princess from the cockpit and have her deal with the giants first!"

"Heivia?"

The Princess said that back at the incoming transmission as she looked surprised at the monitor where she was seeing the boy in the tree as silence resounded in the transmission between the both of them.

Although she did not know the method that was being used right now, she had heard his words perfectly well in the transmission.

_Forget the plan to remove the Princess from the cockpit_

Quenser…had managed to find a way to remove her from the cockpit? How in the world was he going to do that in the limited time that he had and with no resources?

On any other occasion, the Princess would have been surprised as she always was however right now, when it was being directed towards her and she was the target, it was hardly something pleasant to feel.

She understood why he might have done this, after all her half eaten meatloaf sandwich that was staring back at her in the cockpit and their complaining of not having enough food was enough evidence for her to make the judgment. Paired with the fact that even she felt repulsed in the idea of eating giant flesh and there were no pieces of giant fruit seen around, those boys had likely used the last option available to them.

And that had been removing the Princess from the cockpit and taking the food that rightfully belonged to her.

She didn't necessarily feel betrayed, what did she expect from idiots but she was definitely extremely pissed off that her Baby Magnum was the target for the boy's plan (although one of them seemed awfully reluctant to take part).

And those targets for her fury were definitely visible in her cameras right now.

But first she responded to the silence that Heivia was giving her.

"Heivia? Can you care to repeat that? What exactly did you and Quenser plan with that other boy?"

"…Eh heh heh. Oh shit."

The transmission immediately cut off as suddenly Quenser reacted to his own radio as it probably received a transmission from Heivia that reported the situation that he had made and the mistake he had conducted.

There was a tiny silence before both of the boys hanging by the military rubber rope on the Baby Magnum exploded.

"You goddamn idioooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooottttttttttttttttttttttttttt!"

"Heivia-saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!"

"Quenser?!" asked the Princess as she connected to his own frequency as he and Kamijou hung helplessly, dangerously near one of the cannons that were on the upper part of the spherical Object that they had managed to cling to. "Explain this. NOW."

"W-Well you see…."

"Would you believe that Heivia-san was telling a joke?"

The Princess immediately fired one of the smaller cannons, one of the ones that was facing the opposite direction of where Quenser and Kamijou were hanging (on the opposite side of the Object) however the shockwave from such that resounded throughout the Object resounded in their guts as they suddenly found themselves short of breath with ringing ears from the blast of the cannon.

"Quenser?!"

"A-Alright *cough* we give up!" cried Quenser as he hung down however the tone of his voice suggested that he was smiling behind the handkerchief that he was wearing. "But…..I suggest you eject already Princess. This victory is ours. You…..and your food are ours!" Quenser cried in victory as the Princess narrowed her eyes.

"What do you-?"

"You already feel it don't you? The small burning inside your throat?" he asked carefully as Kamijou spoke up as well.

"S-Sorry about this Milinda-san," He said. "I wanted to try and think of a way to do this peacefully but I doubt that you would just give us your food. And then Quenser-san came up with his idea…."

It seemed as though the foreign boy truly felt bad for what he was doing, despite the fact that he realised the necessity in such. He was acting a bit out of character in such by going along with this plan, but since this was a Heavy Object special, it was alright.

The Princess truly felt as though Kamijou was right though, she doubted that she would give the entire group her food because of how she had seen them eat yesterday, meaning that if she looked at this logically, she saw why Quenser and Heivia had turned to the actions that they had.

But, that didn't mean she had to like it as she managed to choke out the words through her hot throat.

"What is this?"

"Hydrochloric acid." replied Quenser simply to which the Princess's eyes went wide.

It had been Kamijou that had given Quenser the idea of using that weapon when he had mentioned 'chemical weapons' although Kamijou had never known it would lead to this; using that horrible chemical against another person. Again, Kamijou was acting a bit out of character here but since this was a special, it could be ignored for now.

But while Kamijou had given Quenser the idea, that only rose a number of questions to the mind, something that was answered as Quenser continued speaking.

"Don't think for a minute that we managed to just create this by ourselves. I'm a battlefield student, Heivia is a radar analyst and Leader here is nothing more than a normal high school student although the hidden potential he has is quite amazing. But we had the resources in order to allow this acid to show itself as a weapon on the battlefield."

"H-How-?"

"Look down."

Quenser replied through the handkerchief, most likely put over his mouth to prevent the airborne acid from entering his own mouth although it was more than likely that he was feeling the effects of it as well, although not to the extent of the Princess, Milinda Brantini.

The Princess though looked down using her cameras and saw only one thing. The dead body of the giant was sprawled out on the ground with a blunt force trauma wound likely spilling the remains of its head on the ground although the wound that had been created by Quenser and Heivia was the one that she noticed.

It was the blown open stomach of that giant.

But what did that have to do with anything?

"Y-You can't be serious!" She could not contain her surprise at the thought that entered her head but it seemed as though she was spot on.

"Exactly. Stomach acid uses hydrochloric acid in its makeup although the quantity is small. Even so, there are still traces of it in there. And thus, for something like giants that need to eat, it is definitely present."

"B-But the quantity of hydrochloric acid in the human stomach is-"

"Leader had the same objection. But then again, _what do we know about the stomach of a giant_? This is a fantasy world Princess, so anything can happen."

"You bet this entire thing on a gamble?" The Princess said that in a cold tone that was devoid of emotion as the battlefield student continued speaking despite everything that he was doing.

"Naturally. Getting food was a gamble but there were a number of things that had to be met when dealing with an Object as we can't leave everything up to luck. I told this to Leader but now it's your turn to be educated Princess. Question: _How do Objects deal with getting oxygen to the cockpit? _While the Megalodiver took in seawater and used electrolysis to create oxygen, not all Objects are made to fight underwater, even First Generation Objects like yours." said Quenser as the Princess narrowed her eyes as he unknowingly ridiculed her pride and joy, the Baby Magnum.

"So the question is how do they get oxygen to the cockpit? Not all of them are airtight although some of the Second Generations are leaning to that now as well as a few First Generations but for the ones that are, they have regulated amounts of oxygen pumped in. This can work in conjunction with small oxygen sprays to catch breath. But for battles that can last days in the modern battlefield, such a thing is a major disadvantage. That is why many Objects, such as yours, mainly use air filters to separate the air that comes into the Object from other poisonous substances. _Such as chemical weapons."_

The Princess recalled how it was Quenser that had asked her to drop the movement of electricity of the reactor towards her air filters to save it but she had never expected him to come up with this plan with that in mind.

"The specialised air filters separate things such as hydrochloric acid and other important intangible weapons like gases and radiation but they cover the entire Object so they naturally need a lot of power to separate every single fine particle that isn't oxygen so the Elite can breathe. The technology Objects use is cutting edge after all. In turn, dropping the air filters means that raw air passes through the Object, while still blocking out foreign signals as well."

Quenser paused, perhaps for effect as she could tell that that dangerous grin that he made before destroying an Object was on his face.

"So with your Object's air filters down, the hydrochloric acid inside the giant's stomach is passing through your Object and reaching you directly! It probably has a lot, what with eating humans and whatnot in this fantasy world. I could be wrong though but Leader and I are suffering here too. The handkerchiefs can only hold back so much."

"*cough* Sorry again Milinida-san."

"But at the end of the day Princess, unless you want to suffocate inside your own cockpit, you need oxygen. You need to eject to survive and stop breathing in the hydrochloric acid fumes! Even with your anti-personnel weapons, cameras and lasers, Elites are still human and need to breathe. Which means that you have to abandon your Object there, Princess. We've won."

The Princess was silent as she breathed in, feeling her throat heat up slightly as she breathed in the hydrochloric acid fumes that were coming from the dead giant's stomach and passing through her unfiltered Object and into her lungs. Although this was being directed towards her, she still could not hold back her amazement.

While this was a fantasy world, trying to find an application back on their own world for this technique would be hard. A number of conditions would have to be met; the Object would be trying to conserve power in its reactor but even then the JPlevelMHD reactors had an immense amount of power.

The only reason the Princess had cancelled out functions such as the air filters was because she wanted to conserve power as she did not know how long she was here. Those reactors did not have indefinite power but rather a lot of it.

Not to mention that the only times when an Elite would drop their air filters in this way would be when they were perfectly relaxed, such as in maintenance base zones. Sneaking into one of those and implanting a poisonous substance inside the cockpit was a suicide mission in itself (not to mention inefficient, extremely dangerous and impractical as a method), yet right now, using a suggestion from Kamijou Touma, luring in the Baby Magnum by Heivia Winchell and using the plan formed by Quenser Barbotage, they had placed Milinda Brantini the Pilot Elite in a position where the only thing she could think of was to eject to protect herself.

While she had oxygen spray inside the cockpit for the sometimes-long missions where she could not breathe and had to drop the air filters, the cockpit was constantly bringing in and already filled with the fumes of the giant stomach's hydrochloric acid.

She was cornered and there was no way out.

She would have to eject to save her own life meaning that Quenser and Kamijou could climb up the side of the Object as they were on the upper half of the spherical main body and enter the cockpit, taking the food that they desired.

The Princess…had….los

"Hey, actually wait a minute!"

Kamijou was the one that let out that panicked remark as everyone looked at him in surprise before he spoke.

"What about those giants that are approaching?! A-At this rate, Milinda-san won't be able to breathe properly, will have to eject the cockpit and we'll have to deal with those giants using nothing but what we have! And we can't run away or fight back either! We're the ones that are cornered!"

Everyone paused as they realised that very basic fact that Heivia had tried to explain from the beginning. Quenser had been so caught up in finding and explaining structural weaknesses in the Object that he had forgotten all about that.

Silence reigned if only for an instant as he chose to give up the food for immediate survival.

"R-Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!"

"I guess that this functions as a bit of payback Quenser *cough*. I'll have you air out the Baby Magnum using your own lungs later so I'll have to do what I can as I am."

The Princess let out that shout despite her breathing becoming hot in her throat as she inhaled the fumes of the hydrochloric acid that was coming from the dead giant's stomach beneath her as she reactivated the air filters, reaching for the oxygen spray that was within her cockpit.

She inhaled a breath of fresh oxygen that almost burned her throat as she focused her eyes through her goggles, getting the numerous readings that were in the distance however even then, the shout from Quenser was not even necessary.

From the distance and her own sensors, she could get a reading and feel for the approaching targets, seeing that the tallest was around 5 metres. That in itself sounded ridiculous however this was a fantasy world and anything could happen. But for an Object that was standing at least 50 metres tall, those giants were nothing more than foot soldiers to the massive weapon that was the Baby Magnum.

"Wait a minute though! Are you attacking them!?" shouted Kamijou at the radio as the response that came back was curt and short.

"Naturally, the alternative is running away."

"D-Do that! I never intended to kill anyone, despite the method to get you out of the cockpit Milinda-san!" cried Kamijou as she clicked her tongue however still did not hesitate in what she did, turning the Baby Magnum around in a quick movement.

And the payback that she was supposed to give Quenser came quickly as her rotating her body with the force that she did meant that both Kamijou and Quenser that were hanging on nothing more than one of the smaller cannons with a military rubber rope were swung to the side from the pure centrifugal force.

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Both Kamijou and Quenser screamed as they had the pressure of the force press up against their bodies as the Baby Magnum turned around and headed towards the outskirts of the forest that was in the distance as the both of them felt as though they had been punched in the stomach from the force involved.

However even then, the 'payback' that the Princess had formed inside her head was hardly over.

Within an instant, that metal monster that reached top speeds of over 500 kph moved at one of those high speeds. Kamijou and Quenser both let out shouts of pain as they were pressed against the body of the Baby Magnum due to the speed and Gs, that it felt as though they were going to be turned into gory splatter on the body of the Object.

They hugged each other as they screamed, tied together by the military rubber rope as it was Quenser that realised something was wrong.

He motioned with his teary face in front of the camera (more pressed against), holding up two fingers towards the Princess as she merely gave a frown at the action as she left the giants behind in her wake as she retreated.

Two? What was that supposed to mean? The only two that there were here were-

If she was surprised, it didn't show on her face as she realised what she had forgotten, only turning her head behind her in the cockpit as she muttered under her breath.

"Oh. We forgot Heivia."

That was the only thing that showed her surprise as through the radio, which was now connected and being received by both radios due to the bidirectional functionality of them, shouts and gunfire were heard through the electronic device.

"You damn fuckers! You left me! I knew that I shouldn't have decided to take on an Object and think there were no consequences! I'll never do it again so at least return and come back for meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Getting stomped on by these bastards is no way going to make me happy!"

Heivia returned to his in-character complaining in the face of danger as he retreated through the forest, chasing after the retreating Baby Magnum although the giants that were in pursuit were quickly crossing the gap, probably going to do so in mere seconds.

Heivia turned and sprayed the air with his rifle bullets frantically, the giants that had been hit barely pausing as the bullets entered their flesh. Just like with the one that had been struck before, it only seemed to irritate the giants if anything as they continued their pursuit with the Private First Class racing towards where the Baby Magnum was with his very life.

Although there was no proof, it was entirely possible that Heivia would serve as lunch for the giants while the others had nothing as Kamijou weakly spoke, not used to travelling at up to 500 kilometres per hour speeds with the Gs pressing up against him, even though supersonic jets were the things that came to mind for him.

"W-We have to go back for him…." he choked out as Quenser kicked Kamijou in the side.

"Screw that! He left us to do the worst job and just hung in the background while we inhaled that hydrochloric acid as well Leader! Besides, he has a rifle! Go on!" He shouted at the Princess as she merely gave a sigh, turning the body of the Baby Magnum so that it faced the forest once more.

While she was sitting in her superweapon, something that could surely destroy the giants in a single shot, the problem was that Heivia was from her world. As such she felt as though it was definitely her responsibility to at least watch out for him, as he had done before for her. Not to mention that there was also the fact that in a way, this would teach both Quenser and Heivia NEVER to think to take on her Baby Magnum in a way that could possibly succeed.

Although she wasn't as kind hearted as Kamijou seemed to be (but perhaps there was a greater strength in not willing to kill even in wars as well), she still had an obligation to protect and save Heivia as he fled.

"Sorry Quenser but he is from our world."

"….Heivia, you owe us one!" shouted Quenser as he seemed to relinquish that point towards the boy as Heivia responded with tears in his eyes while being chased by something that he had never thought he would be chased by.

"I love you guys!"

"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! The final ending won't be me x Heiviaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

"I didn't mean thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttttttttttttt!"

"Heivia, you best get down. I'm holding back from that comment that you made."

"T-Try not to kill the giants! I'm sure that this is something like trespass to land for them so at least try and hold back!" Kamijou shouted at the Princess despite not having any actual power over her actions.

She narrowed her eyes as she looked at the boy in the camera, seeing that in his eyes he was serious about maintaining his position of not killing. He had put her in a position where she would have chosen to save her own life after having Quenser tell her of the weakness in the Baby Magnum, so there was definite kindness or softness there.

It was possible that if he had lived on their world that he would be striving for a war where no one was actually killed in front of him if he could help it.

Such an existence seemed at odds with people such as her, Quenser and Heivia who had blood on their hands however even though he likely knew that they had killed he still wanted to avoid having them stain their hands if they could help it.

His existence was almost an opposite to theirs however there was something there, almost a magnetic force to his own ideals and self that made the Princess realise that there was definite strength in them. Despite the Princess having the ability to call it naïve, pointless and not thinking of the larger picture, it was likely that he held it to his very core.

Personally, Milinda Brantini could not understand such a thing. When it came to war, thinking of killing your enemy in a firefight was something that was not looked down upon. In fact, it was basically a requirement. Kamijou did not deny that however at the same time, right now he wanted to avoid that very basic reality.

She did not understand his point of view however at the same time, she felt herself drawn to it as if trying to find the optimal solution in a hopeless situation was something that everyone had to at least try when it came down to it.

She, Quenser and Heivia had constantly come across situations like that however had they ever reached a solution where 'everyone was saved'? It wasn't required for them and Kamijou surely would not blame them for such since they were fighting proper wars but still, there was something there as if merely trying to work towards such was a noble thing to do that could not be looked down on.

Despite how naïve it was.

Despite how pointless it was.

Despite how it did not look at the larger picture.

"Understood Leader. Commencing the plan of attack. I'll have to use one of my smaller cannons so you two better prepare yourself."

Quenser and Heivia went silent at the term that the Princess had called Kamijou in the heat of the moment, realising that there was perhaps a larger meaning behind Milinda's use of Kamijou's name in the way that she had. They fell silent for only a moment as they considered what it meant for themselves too, their own position in the face of what Kamijou had said.

After all, their own hands were dirtied yet they were also clean. To that extent, was it possible that they could try and move towards a solution where they could truly say that 'everyone was saved'?

Their world did not function like that as sometimes the optimal solution was the death of an enemy but a small twinge in their heart at least felt that trying to do something different in a different world would surely result in something that they hadn't seen before.

The existence of Kamijou Touma at least made them think of possibilities such as that in the heat of the moment.

Those soldiers who had been through different hells than that normal high school boy.

"Heivia! When the Princess is ready to fire the smaller cannon, you'll have to duck! Doing so will lower the chances of receiving the shockwave in the chest!"

"I hope you're at least planning on blasting away from me! You might be thinking of saving these son of bitches but at least consider the future leader of the Winchell family, the great Heivia! Intimidating scars are the last thing that I want on this battlefield where I can't get honourably discharged!"

"Heivia, I'm aiming currently 500 metres to your left. Are you ready?"

The Princess manipulated a few of the keys inside as her emotionless voice filled with a slight amusement as she looked at the figures that were on her Object and hanging by the military rubber rope.

"By the way everyone, I think this can serve as the last part of your punishment."

"Huh?"

"Huh?"

"Huh?"

Al three boys asked that question as a humming filled the air in a cannon that was near where Kamijou and Quenser were, the both of them looking at one of the cannons that was at the base of the Baby Magnum, noting that it was humming.

"Sh-Shit! Princess, this is something that doesn't fit in with being the straight man! Slapstick like this can be tuned down a bit!"

"Qu-Quenser-san!? What does that mean?" asked Kamijou as Quenser looked at the boy that was next to him.

"T-the Princess is planning on using the shockwave from the cannon blast to cause some damage to our body. Although she hasn't had maintenance for at least a day, she's thinking of using one of her weaker cannons that aren't at full strength after fighting that dragon rather than a main cannon. Regardless even if she does use one of her weaker cannons at this point I don't think that we'll get away unscathed!"

"Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!? I'd take Index's bite over this any day! Wh-what are we going to do?!"

"H-How am I supposed to know?!"

Kamijou looked down at the humming cannon as a thought appeared in his head, causing the boy to frantically look up the body of the Baby Magnum with frantic eyes. They were on the upper side and it was slanted meaning that running up it would take time, time that they did not have if they wanted to escape unharmed.

Quenser had said that it was unlikely things would kill them but the both of them at least had the human instinct to want to avoid pain at all costs.

Using that human instinct, Kamijou immediately tried to untangle the military rubber rope that had circled around itself, before managing to do so as he placed his legs against Quenser's chest with the boy looking surprised at the action.

"Wh-What are you-!?"

"Just copy me and push when you think the cannon is going to fire! Give the warning to Heivia-san as well!" shouted Kamijou back as Quenser realised where this thought was going as he did the same, pressing his legs against Kamijou's chest as Kamijou copied the action.

The battlefield student looked down at the humming cannon, feeling in his gut and from the humming that the final moment had arrived.

"Heivia!"

Quenser shouted the boy's name as the gunfire suddenly stopped in the forest as both Kamijou and Quenser kicked off each other's chest. Meanwhile in the forest, Heivia threw himself to the ground, trying to use the ups and downs in the earth to get the best cover.

The smaller cannon fired and the coilgun shell that fired out flew through an arc and hit the spot 500 metres to the left of where Heivia was. The shockwave of the shell firing resounded through the Object as it hit the two boys that had kicked each other in the chest from the bottom.

While that in itself was something that did not do much, what their actions did do was force the two boys out to the side instead of being directly underneath the cannon. In turn, the shockwave thrust them upwards and instead of flying directly towards the cannon above as they circled in the air, blasted upwards from the shockwave.

It wasn't powerful enough to blast them high into the air to the extent that falling would kill them however as the two boys let out yells as they sailed through the air, it was clear that they both realised just how frightening Objects were. As that shockwave had been from a smaller cannon that had lost some of its power due to lack of maintenance it was only left to the imagination what a full power smaller cannon would have done to their bodies.

They flew into the air before landing on the top of the Object, coughing and spluttering. They groaned with the military rubber rope still connecting them as they both held it however it had been dislodged from the cannon by the shockwave. Their bodies screamed with pain and they coughed out blood from their handkerchiefs that had come from their mouths, leaning backwards on top of the Object as they let their bodies come to terms with the fact that one of the weaker cannons had been powerful enough to cause that damage to their bodies and that damage in itself was not even at full power.

Although Quenser realised that the cannon blast had been weakened due to lack of maintenance after the battle with the dragon thus reducing the power provided by the reactor to that particular cannon (perhaps the Princess has also done something to add to that effect as well), Kamijou only had to imagine what a full power blast would do in a war while Quenser had seen it for himself before.

Heivia though was on the receiving end of that very blast.

The coilgun shell struck the ground and even in its weakened state, blew a shockwave that even reached Heivia 500 metres away. It uprooted trees and spread indiscriminate destruction to the area around the epicentre of the blast.

Heivia yelled as he was tossed through the air, hitting the trunk of a tree as he also groaned in response to the blast however the giants were not so lucky, not being prepared for the sudden violence.

The shockwave hit them dead centre, throwing them all backwards a few metres as they slammed onto the ground, creating earthquake-like tremors, unconscious from the blast simply because they had been unprotected, too close and not prepared for the strike that took them all out as Heivia coughed out blood too as his body ached and screamed as he had hit the tree too hard and because of the shockwave.

He hadn't broken any bones but the overall damage was enough to at least mean that he wouldn't be able to move now.

His gaze turned towards the centre of the destruction that the coilgun shell had created and immediately swore, trying to stand up but not managing to do so with the pain in his body.

"Even with a lower output level from the reactor….to do this, Objects are still the monsters of the battlefield."

He lay on the ground, unmoving as he made that comment, realising that perhaps choosing to attack the Baby Magnum had not been one of his finer moments as he let the pain of the experience wash over him. He withstood it though as he directed his gaze towards the Object in the distance that had fired a weakened shot that had managed to do this much damage to a flesh-and-blood soldier such as him from the mere shockwave, let alone what it did to the giants.

Back on top of the Object, both Kamijou and Quenser groaned, his head too rattled to make any note of the fact that lowering the output of a coilgun shell like had been done was something that he had never seen before. While as a student that in itself was something that was of great interest to him in the way that Objects divided the reactor's power in the case of where there was lack of maintenance, his own rattled body struggled to keep his thoughts in order.

"I'm dead….I'm so totally dead…..Objects are too much for this, even at a lower output…."

He let out that weak whine as Kamijou heard it and responded to it.

Kamijou tried to stand and used a cannon nearby for support however a hissing and the sound of something opening coming from beneath him made him turn downwards, only to feel his left foot suddenly step on mid-air as the ground for it disappeared.

With a yell, he fell into whatever had opened, feeling his back skid on something like a slide for a bit before slamming his head on something metal as he let out a cry of pain, only to feel something warm enter his throat as he found himself surrounded by a blue interior that had numerous displays and monitors around him. He lay stunned on the ground as a voice spoke up towards him.

He turned and went wide eyed as he saw in the flesh, an Elite of an Object as Milinda Brantini turned around in her cockpit seat and looked him straight in the eye.

"Operation complete Leader. So I assume that you will help me air out the cockpit from the fumes that you put in here?" she asked as her blonde hair and blue Elite suit seemed perfectly suited and at home inside the cockpit.

Kamijou due to the accumulated damage only moaned as he truly lamented on how since he had agreed to this plan, it proved that he was an idiot, not to mention those that had come up with the idea.

But then again, when he thought about it, no matter where you look idiots could be found in many worlds.

* * *

**[1] This is sort of an Easter egg for those that read the novels. Since I consider the crossover to be canon, in terms of the novels of Heavy Object, the crossover was released after Volume 8 where Quenser and Heivia fought the Megalodiver in March. Chronologically in the events of Heavy Object, these events are before Volume 10 which had events occurring in April of the timeline there.**

**[2] Again, when it comes to the release of the crossover novel in relation to where the Index novels were released, the crossover novels was released after NT 11, making events canon up until then for me.**

**THE STORY CONTINUES AFTER THIS, just scroll down below after this note. I felt as though this fit better here than at the end.**

**So I guess the first question was 'What did you think?'**

**For those of you that haven't read or seen Heavy Object, this might seem a bit strange for you but for those that have read or seen it, I hope that you enjoyed this for the most part if you chose to read it.**

**For me, this was a long one, mainly because it was a special but also because there are just so many ways to have Touma interact with the idiots that are Quenser and Heivia. Perhaps the first half of this story reflects that a bit better than the second half but to an extent, I hope that you feel that I got the characters in-character (with the exception of Touma accepting the hydrochloric acid plan as I think he wouldn't really accept that for the reason given but apart from that I hope you accepted everything!). I suppose that I really want to hope that I got Quenser and Heivia more in character than Touma because ACUL0 and other BTL projects allow me to do that while the two idiots I've only ever done once. So I hope you felt as though they weren't OOC.**

**This is sort of the first (unofficial) fanfic crossover that I've seen between Heavy Object and Index so I hope at the very least you felt as though this was worth your time for those that read it from top to bottom. Having Touma deal with the values and ideals of the world of Heavy Object is something interesting to consider, as the Princess does in the second half.**

**After all, for those characters, killing is something that comes with the job. They don't think about it and when they do, they can justify it with stating that they were fighting 'war'. While Touma can accept that, I feel as though if he was in that situation, any justification he had would just be something that would fill him with guilt. He would still move forward but still have that guilt that the characters of Heavy Object seem to be without (or at least it seems that way). In that way, having him accept a plan where the Princess might die due to inhaling the hydrochloric acid seems a bit out of character.**

**But if you thought something along the lines of 'Well the Princess would have ejected in order to save her life so Touma would have known that and thus is in character' I'd be pleased. But it's just my own thoughts and I hope that you overlooked it for the most part.**

**There are other things to speak about but I'll limit it to two here that stick out for me.**

**1\. Dealing with the Baby Magnum!**

**We dealt with that Object using a fantasy setting so normal rules go out of the window! It might seem lazy but what did you think of a method to suffocate an Elite using the fumes from hydrochloric acid? I'm no scientist so I hope that I got that right using the science bit although I think it would take longer than what I said it would.**

**I've always wondered, how do Elites breath? The obvious answer is either 'airtight cockpits with artificial oxygen' or 'air gets filtered in'. I mentioned the former inside the story but for the latter, this is where Quenser's method comes up. Thinking of something that would keep the Princess alive but force her to eject was a major thinking thing for me so I hope that you accepted it as a method to deal with Objects.**

**But damn, it was bloody hard! While there is a definite 'groundwork' for Objects and how they operate, dealing with an Object we all know, the Baby Magnum and how to defeat this First Generation with its focus on anti-personnel weaponry was super hard. Moving outside the framework is a no-go and ridiculous so I decided to suffocate an Elite using acid. I can't remember if it was ever included inside the novels so I hope that it doesn't contradict anything….**

**But if Quenser and Heivia were to actually try it in their world, I doubt that it would go so well. The Princess's thoughts reflect this (as a method it's impractical and if you were to make it into a base zone and the cockpit, I doubt you would put in a poisonous substance but that's just my own thoughts even though you would preserve the technology of the captured Object) but it is definitely a method to take down an Object intact I think! With the idea of air filters, chemical weapons and turning off the power to them from the reactor, the idea this time around didn't really go into 'cutting edge' weapons or 'hidden weaknesses' did it?**

**2\. The coilgun shell.**

**This bothered me to no end so I want to explain it a bit. Given that the Princess is inside a fantasy world with no indication for how long she would be there, I wanted to at least make a note of how Objects, even with their reactors, need maintenance and constant charging.**

**As a result, it is only natural to think that overtime, especially if the Princess wants to save power, the power of the cannons would lessen. They would still have the power of an Object that was seen, capable of killing any flesh-and-blood soldiers but whether in such a state the Princess would be able to take on another Object and win is an unknown for me but I doubt it.**

**I hope that you read that though and only accepted it without thinking too much into it.**

**For those that want to point out any discrepancies, I want you to do so. Heavy Object was a tricky world to write for the first time in a while and I hope that you enjoyed it for the most part. I did and it was a great challenge.**

**I think though that the numerous ideas that are swimming around for me right now are making my head hurt. Numerous ideas for a Heavy Object fanfic (more Quenser, Heivia, Princess and even Frolaytia) came to me as I wrote this and I wrote them all down but I have nothing to do with them. Hm…. Possible new project? But then again, I'm not as great an expert on Heavy Object as I am Index despite having read everything so I'm a bit scared to have a go at something new there without being sure of everything. I guess I'm open to suggestions though!**

**But that's the end of the notes for me. I hope you enjoyed the above bit overall and enjoy the epilogue below.**

* * *

The main issue though was hardly solved!

"So….the only thing we were left with was this meat loaf sandwich? And it's half-eaten?"

Quenser Barbotage asked that question through a hoarse throat, his handkerchief that was covered in blood around his neck now giving the only sign that he had been in some trouble at all.

Currently the three idiots that had put themselves through so much were walking, located half way between the forest where they had created the situation of chaos for themselves and the ever hungry group that lay in wait for them.

"There's no way that we'll be able to split this between everyone."

Heivia Winchell gave that acute observation, covered with dirt and other bits of foliage due to his own experience with the weakened coligun shell and the shockwave that had thrown him to the side. His ears were still ringing but that had no effect on the displeasure that he was feeling upon seeing the food that they had managed to haggle away from the Princess.

"W-Well it could be worse. At least Milinda-san is alright."

Kamijou Touma gave that remark however the hand shaped slap mark that was on his face (that had nothing to do with falling back into the cockpit and accidentally straddling the Princess as she tried to move out of the way of his falling body) and the blood that was on his handkerchief made it clear that he had also been in a bit of a bind as well.

Those three heroes clearly had the wounds of a great battle plastered all over them but for those that were surely going to be awaiting their return, the only thing that they had was a half-eaten meatloaf sandwich.

And it was cold.

"Think back on your actions. Don't think that I'll stand for this again Quenser, Heivia." Milinda Brantini, the Princess gave back that remark in her usual stoic voice however if they read between the lines, they were certain that she would have been mad about what had happened.

While Quenser and Kamijou had aired out the cockpit, thus removing the hydrochloric acid fumes that were inside it, the only thing that they had gotten as a reward was the sandwich that the trio now looked at as they walked along the ground. The Baby Magnum trailed behind them but it was clear that everyone was tired and exhausted after what had happened.

"How do you think we'll split it?" asked Kamijou to which Quenser shook his head rapidly.

"Why do we have to share in the first place Leader? After everything we went through, not only did we not find any fruit and came across horrible giants, but the only thing that we found was a meat-loaf sandwich! I'm all for the indirect kiss that we get from this but at the very least I think that we should be the ones to eat this by ourselves!"

"I removed that part that I ate Quenser so don't get any funny ideas."

"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! S-So I can't even experience that indirect kiss cliché once in my life?! This is worse than hell! Take me back! Even if are thrown into hell, I at least want to be surrounded by the pride and joy of the military that are Objects again!"

"I agree! Although having that sadistic large-breasted commander lecture us for ages will be hell in itself just thinking of the pleasure that will be gained by having her stomp on me is enough to get my blood pumping! I don't want that from an Object or Youkai or some other freaks! Take me back!"

Both of the boy soldiers let out all of their pent up fury as they collapsed to the ground and threw a tantrum as the big brother that was Kamijou looked at the both of them with a kind gaze and tried to calm them both down.

"C-Come on you guys. We made it this far so we at least have to make sure that the others get the reward as well. If we only think of ourselves then we're not going to get very far."

"Shut up! I don't want to hear your 'goody two-shoes' act! I know you're the one that wants to split the meat-loaf three ways instead of numerous so just split it already and give it to us! After that battle of survival with thinking up a way to take down the Baby Magnum, cleaning out the cockpit and running from giants, there's nothing stopping us! I have nothing to feel guilty about!"

"You can drink your own urine if you want to Leader but do it in your own privacy while Sir Knight and I enjoy the tastiness that is Elite bred food! I've had enough of these flavourless rations and I want some proper meat! The life of a noble is not something that should be placed down to this level!"

"B-But Heivia-san, pulling rank like that is only going to make people hate you. Right now we're all equals."

"Against a bratty commoner high schooler like you, a noble Private First Class like me is a god! So bow down to me and give me that damn meat-loaf sandwich! If you're going to hog it all to yourself and say stupid things like 'Let's share' and sing 'Why Can't We Be Friends', then I've got a nice lead bullet for you right here!"

"I think that taking it that far is a bit – Wait, why are you seriously pointing that thing at me!?"

Kamijou let out that surprised shout as Heivia pointed the rifle at him, with bloodshot eyes and a look of desire that clearly stated that he would not feel bad if he actually killed Kamijou and took the meat-loaf for himself.

"Give it to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

"Waaaaah! Heivia's seriously gone into full soldier mode now! Run Leader! The only time I've seen him this serious is when he suggests peeking in the women's bath!" Quenser went wide eyed as he saw that Heivia was starting to run towards Kamijou who was holding the meat-loaf sandwich in a protective way.

"What was that Quenser?"

"Give us that meat-loaf sandwich!"

The question from the Princess made the battlefield student change his tune quickly in order to avoid being caught out on what he said, as he chased after Heivia who was running towards Kamijou who went pale.

"Are we really going back to this?! Fine, if that's how you want it then I won't hold back! If you think that I'm going to finish this special without saying my second catchphrase,"

Kamijou took a momentary pause as he clenched his right fist, trying to be pointlessly dramatic and to give his catchphrase the single line of dialogue that it needed.

"Then I'll break that illusion of yours!"

Moving the meat-loaf sandwich into his left hand and using his right, Kamijou leaped towards the boy soldier that was heading towards him with the rifle, slamming his right fist into his face.

Heivia stumbled back from the blow that was oddly powerful as Quenser leaped over his partner's body striking Kamijou in the gut as the both of them fell to the floor and scrambled over control of the meat-loaf sandwich (which was wrapped in protective plastic).

Quenser moved to get some Hand Axe, more to intimidate Kamijou if anything however Kamijou had guessed that very action, slamming his forehead into Quenser's as he recoiled as Kamijou rolled out from underneath him.

Heivia had recovered and rose from the ground, retrieving his combat knife to threaten Kamijou however the boy tossed the meat-loaf sandwich in the air above the entire group as both of the boys looked at it with surprise as it flew through the air.

Kamijou took that chance, slamming his fist into Heivia's face once more as the solder fell to the ground as Kamijou caught the meat-loaf sandwich but before he could say anything, was tackled in the side by Quenser who suddenly seemed oddly serious about only sharing it between three like Heivia was while Kamijou was trying to share it between everyone.

The two struggled before Heivia joined the fray in what looked to be a tangle of bodies as they all struggled to steal the sandwich away from Kamijou (Quenser and Heivia) or protect it with his life (Kamijou).

The Princess though, Milinda Brantini only maintained a neutral expression as she watched the brawl through her cameras as she tried to think of a commentary to say however she was just too exhausted now that her cockpit had been cleared out.

She tried to think of something to say towards the boys in order to get them to stop fighting however the only thing that she came up with was something that that foreign boy from the other world had already realised.

"No matter where you look, idiots can be found in many worlds."

* * *

**And as always,  
Review if you please.**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**Somehow, I got Touma, Quenser, Heivia and the Princess involved in a plan to take down an Object that had giants in it, what I thought their conversations would be like and some insight on how the world of Index is different to HO. Given the length that was needed to put this in though, it hardly feels like a 'one-shot' and definitely more a 'special'. If you felt though that this could actually happen in the canon (well this goes for all of my Index projects BTL and ACUL0), then I've done my job properly!**

**Should I do another….?**


	27. The Resolve of a Hunter II

**With the Heavy Object anime ending right after I posted the crossover, I can tell all those that watched it that I will miss it dearly. It was an extremely fun ride and it will always hold a special place in my heart as we can never do without explosions, Quenser's and Heivia's bromance, the Princess, Frolaytia and Objects. Thank goodness the novels are still out there but it will be missed! But still, GIVE US ANOTHER SEASON OF SOMETHING! But enough of this melancholy!**

**Once again with the proper requests!**

**I'll start briefly with an apology. Looking at the ideas for the requests, the first thing that those that have followed have noticed is that I have skipped 's request. I'm sorry for this, first and foremost but I do not think that I am that confident in getting the character interactions of Medaka Box on point as you would like. I realise that if you don't mind my only surface knowledge of the series (I did read it but barely remember it), then I am willing to do the crossover however keep in mind that it might not be the best that can be done but I will do my best if you ask for it. If you are alright with that, then I am all eager to go ahead but I do not want to disappoint you, who requested as I'm particular about these sort of things and don't want to let you down.**

**Now, until I get a response, I'll get into the next request (I'm REALLY sorry and I await your reply) which came from Ame No Mikoto who asked:**

As same as Touma, Mikoto also don't care about Levels when it comes to people, as she had accepted Uhiaru and Saten, but when it comes to fights she cares because she wants to get stronger and thus defeat everyone in her way.

As for her not believing Touma is a level0, it's as you mentioned the same reaction of Touma about Magic.

Great chapter about Mikoto, I'll make my own suggestion:I wonder how Touma will react if he saw the sweet side of Mikoto , whicy is loving and caring, also respectful to all people of all levels , and quite adorable

**And of course I can do this.**

**And before we get into the usual thanks, here is the Q &amp; A:**

**mario castaeda: I'm not even sure how Doctor Who and Index would coincide with each other. As a whole, while I might drop in references like that, having Touma or whatever in the TARDIS feels kind of off for me. There's nothing stopping other people doing it though which is good but personally, I'm not sure how the two worlds would coincide.**

**pop2ww: Thanks for your kind words and I really love reading your extended thoughts on what I write. It makes it seem as though you really took everything in and formed a solid opinion which I like. So keep it up! Frolaytia did not get much screen time last time which was sad but we'll see what can happen. And we all know Quenser x Heivia is more than just bromance and their unpredictable ideas are what makes the series fun (although technically how Elites breath was covered in the latest novel which sort of makes my idea half-half in terms of effectiveness and application)! Anything can happen with those two, as you just said. And both of your ideas have merit (although in the official crossover there was Shadow Accelerator vs the Baby Magnum) and I've got a draft for a 'sort of' cannibalisation of Touma hell. As for Season 3 of Index (this is like taboo wishing) but IF Zashiki Warashi is ever to be animated, AND Blood-Sign, then a Season 3 might be fit in between them. There is certainly a lot of source material and popularity so there's no reason to not do it.**

**And as for the OC questions…this will take a while so I'll go through them slowly, one at a time. My first OC Shin Wataru from Fukiyose's arc (this was AGES ago) doesn't really have a face or description because he's your stereotypical thug. Think of one of those background characters that never gets a name, thrown into a poor role and you've got a character like Shin. He'll be rather bland with no features to stand out but overall will appear in most anime/manga/LN as a nameless thug. I'll get to others later but seriously, it's a LONG list so I hope that you can hold on!**

**KurobaraIto: I wrote it just for you so I'm glad to hear your thoughts. And yeah, the science-y part is the hardest part to write HO for but then again, strange ideas are filling my own head for HO that I can't get rid of. And you nailed it with the ideals point. I've always felt as though looking between the characters is important so I wanted to get more into their heads and look at what drives them, giving Quenser, Heivia and the Princess the chance to strive for that unattainable objective that they have in their world. As for Zashiki Warashi, the setting would probably be the same and I've got a Package for Touma to deal with already as well as character interactions but nothing solid written down yet and it will probably be a while (emphasised) until this happens.**

**Horizon Dreamer: This was back for the Futures one-shot right? I only gave a glimpse, but it gets worse. …Much worse. And Touma Kiritsugu and Index Irisviel have a strange sort of appeal to me.**

**Guest: Sorry, I've never seen or read Durarara so I don't think I'd be qualified to do a crossover for it.**

**whwsms: Chapter 22 will get a follow up at some stage but I'm not sure about the tune playing the background. It would kill all seriousness and I'd be laughing the entire time. Touma does have a theme song though. It's floating around somewhere in Youtube I'm sure.**

**But before I begin, I'd like to do the usual and thank 3 people.**

**The first: PokeRescue18 for his work towards this project which has been vital.**

**The second: to you, the reader who has kept this project alive.**

**The third: to Ame No Mikoto who gave me this idea in the first place.**

**All of you have my thanks and , you have my apologies and I await your reply in this regard. So without further ado;**

**Enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

Rivals Bound By One-Sided Desire. _The_Relaxation_Begins._

She had to get away.

That was the only thing that entered Misaka Mikoto's mind as she sat in the playground, surrounded by children that seemed oblivious to her problems as she let out a solemn sigh.

The weather was fine, the birds chirped and summer vacation was nearing as it was June 24th yet for some reason, Mikoto just couldn't find time to relax, something troubling her greatly as she rubbed her hands through her hair and lay back in the seat where she was.

The trouble she was having was not related to the usual idiot that she chased through the City.

She had chashed him endlessly for the past few days whenever they met much to Mikoto's delight and the boy's anger but it seemed as though the more Mikoto chased him, the fitter she was becoming, becoming more and more toned and athletic. She hadn't realised it until a few days before when an underclassman had commented on it offhand, something that made her check the steps that she had taken on her phone and the distance travelled.

She hadn't thought much of it as the app on her phone was always active (sucking up battery at the same time) but perhaps it was her more girlish side focusing upon ways to lose weight and the like that served as the reason why she kept the app but for whatever reason it was, she had checked it yesterday.

And lo and behold, she was the most surprised when she found that the distance that she had travelled chasing that idiot from June 19th to June 23rd yesterday had been in total, around 350 kilometres.

In five days she had run that much.

She had done the calculations, around 70 kilometres running per day and that in turn only made her wonder where she and that idiot had managed to get the energy to do so much running. Yet despite that fact meaning that she should be bursting with energy, Misaka Mikoto still felt extremely tired and drained as she sat in the playground.

The reason would have to be her new roommate, Shirai Kuroko.

Ever since yesterday when she had moved in, Mikoto could not help but find out that there were certain tendencies of the underclassman Level 4 Teleporter that would be frowned upon in most friendships. She had tried to be cordial when they had met yesterday morning however the moment that the Dorm Manager had left to let Shirai get comfortable with her surroundings, she had boldly declared that she was Mikoto's herald, to be with her every time and second of every day.

She had thought she was joking at first however the events of yesterday had only made her realise that there were some things about her new roommate that were definitely going to have to be sorted out when it came to boundaries.

No, they would have to be more than sorted out.

They would have to probably make some sort of written agreement, legally binding in order to make sure that that Teleporter stuck to those boundaries no matter what for fear of getting a restraining order against her. As of right now, Mikoto preferred such an option but her own hesitance in accepting the tendencies of her new roommate had meant that she had run away.

She, the #3 Level 5 esper, the third strongest in the City had run away from her new roommate, Shirai Kuroko to escape from her strange perverted tendencies that definitely needed to be stopped.

Thus, this lead to the current predicament that she was in as she lay on that bench after school in the heat of the summer.

She did not know what to do. Sure, she knew that running away from the Teleporter would only put away her problems for now but as for the matter at hand, there was nothing more than worries within Mikoto's mind. She had no idea how to address the problem at hand and, unlike that idiot, she could not resort to striking her new roommate with enough volts to kill a small animal.

Resolutions and ways to get used to her new roommate filled her mind meant that she knew she would have to get used to her new friend or at least compromise but solutions where Mikoto had to change to fit the situation were limited.

By no means was Mikoto a princess but at the very least she wished that she had a less clingy roommate to deal with when it regarded her problems.

Yet Mikoto knew that she would have to either deal with the issue at hand or merely accept how Shirai was with both options having pros and cons to them.

As she sat in the playground and considered her options, the laughing children around her seemed to ignore her problems as they laughed and played with each other. They were all young however it was clear from the groups that had formed, circles of children that were around a particular child, that the children showing off to the others were at least Level 2 or 3 (perhaps even 4 but unlikely given their age) with the rest being of a lower Level. The constant shouts of "Ohh" and "Ahh" disturbed her thoughts as her frown deepened.

Why had she chosen this playground anyway? She had done so automatically, even when there were children within it to think about her problems and it was beginning to disrupt her thinking. What had she expected? When it came to loud noises, of course they would disrupt her thinking so why had she chosen this playground anyway to consider her own problems?

Thinking logically, there was no reason for her to stay and brood on the point as she began to stand up however one the children, possibly one of the lower Levels turned towards her and his eyes immediately lit up.

"Look! Look everyone!" The young boy shouted as Mikoto froze, halfway in standing up as she blinked once as the boy seemed to be pointing at her. She looked stunned at the recognition that the boy was giving her.

How did he know her? Why was he pointing at her? Did it have something to do with the fact that she was a Level 5, someone that was essentially the 'poster girl' for Academy City? She was supposed to be going to Russia in a few days and that meant that she was recognised pretty well among the citizens of Academy City (well, some) that wanted to Level up so it wasn't surprising that someone would have pointed her out in a crowd.

She didn't mind it so much but being the centre of attention when there were other people around made her feel as though she was the most important one in a crowd. She knew it was hardly the case and wanted to at least make others around her stand out a bit more but it wasn't because she disliked the fame. She merely accepted it although reluctantly but there was another reason why she didn't like it.

It was because by having her be superior to others, it meant that she was essentially making everyone else inferior as a result.

Everyone had the chance to grow. Mikoto believed that at the very bottom of her heart, seen in how she had moved from being a Level 1 to a Level 5 but that in turn was something that not many people had accomplished. She believed in effort, pushing people towards overcoming their problems and she believed that that effort was held by everyone and something everyone could tap into.

In a way, she felt as though everyone had the capability to work hard, and that in turn meant that everyone had the capability to become their own strength even if they were weak themselves. If Mikoto was a symbol towards ensuring that people around her worked hard and achieved results that they were happy about then she had no problem with the fame.

After all, Level didn't matter to her. As long as you had the drive, effort and the want to move forward, then Mikoto felt as though she had the right to hold out her hand to those people. If you were stuck and did nothing about it, then Mikoto felt as though that was a waste of potential.

If people lamented about their Level, then they simply had to do something about it. And working hard to raise it or merely becoming a different person that did not rely on their powers was a way that that could happen. If anyone did that, merely worked and put the effort needed in order to improve themselves then Misaka Mikoto was proud to be a part of that.

People felt she was superior because she was a Level 5. However, for her, it was hardly the case. She had once been inferior so she merely worked towards improving herself with effort and she felt that as long as you did that, then there was surely something that could come out of it.

And if you did that, then she was willing to hold out her hand to anyone she saw doing that.

As a resident of this City, it wasn't as if she had the obligation to help everyone and she had no intention to. But for her, if you at least tried with a bit of effort to reach hidden potential within yourself then you could overcome any obstacle and rise above yourself.

In that sense, Level didn't matter. In that sense, to a small extent everyone was the same in that some part of them at least wanted to make themselves better in some way. The only way to rise was up and as long as you worked for it, the ladder of life and results had no ending.

Still although that was what Mikoto hoped her fame was interpreted by other people as (as a way to push themselves to improve as she had done so by moving from Level 1 to Level 5), there were still people that thought of her fame as nothing more than 'it's a Level 5! Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee'. There was nothing wrong with people like that but Mikoto wondered if the boy that was pointing to her now was pointing to her because of that fame and recognition.

However, it seemed as though the boy had found someone that was even more important than that Level 5. And that was something that shocked Mikoto to her very core.

"Look everyone! It's Spearhead! Spearheaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadddddddddddd!"

"Huh?"

Mikoto blinked once more, realising that the boy was not pointing at her but rather past her as she looked behind her, while trying to stand up and twitching at the sight of the person that had clearly been trying to sneak past her while she was brooding on how to deal with Shirai.

Kamijou Touma, or rather that idiot had his back hunched and was walking on tip-toe in a clear effort to not be noticed by her as he jumped now that their eyes met now that he was noticed by the smaller boy and Level 5. His mouth was open in pure shock now that she was looking at him as neither party said a word as they looked at each other.

"It's Spearhead!"

"Spearhead!"

"Leader, I heard that you fought a gang last night and saved the girl once again! Tell me how I can be as strong as you Leader!"

"Wait….isn't that the Railgun Level 5?"

"Who cares? It's Spearhead!"

The words of the children that had brushed off her existence stabbed into her chest as the children ran out of the playground and started to surround that idiot that was clearly outraged by the fact that they had pointed him out to Mikoto.

"Y-You idiots! What kind of grunts are you if you point out your Spearhead when he's trying to escape without injury? Ah!?" Kamijou seemed to realise his mistake as he looked at Mikoto that was fully standing up now, grinning maliciously.

She understood now.

The reason why she had chosen this park.

Perhaps it was a reaction that was carved deep within her however it had been this park that the two of them had duelled (well more chased) for hours on end for the past few days. Whenever she wanted to vent, she would take it out on the spiky haired boy so in the face of her problems now, she must have subconsciously wanted to come here in order to relax and vent.

While it could be interpreted that she wanted to subconsciously meet him, something that she forced down as why would she want to subconsciously meet this idiot, she had come to vent and relax her mind when it came to the issue of Shirai Kuroko.

And what better way to do that than to duel with the one person that she could not stand?

She believed in effort, that hard work generated hard results. Yet this idiot, this Level 0 as he had said and she had confirmed by hacking the Bank, had managed to blow away Mikoto's effort without any of his own. He was the polar opposite of Mikoto in every way and that in turn meant that there was no way that Mikoto was going to stand for his way of life.

His aloofness, his carefree attitude and his constant complaining, it was as if he merely lived life by being swept along instead of focusing his effort on something about himself. Sure he focused on surviving and running away when it came to Mikoto but that seemed to be it and that infuriated Mikoto more than she could say.

"It's you…."

"A…a ha ha. Wh-what a coincidence Biri Biri!" Kamijou tried to brush off the meeting as Mikoto stood up on the bench she was sitting on, putting her foot on the end of it as she cracked her knuckles.

"Do you really think so? I think that this is nothing more than fate bringing us together." said Mikoto in a low tone that clearly suggested that she was more than pleased to see the boy or rather her target.

Sparks flew from her bangs and Kamijou merely blanched at what she was doing.

"D-Do you want to do this now?! There are kids around!"

"Do you intend on using them as shields?"

"You're going to do this now?! You really are, aren't you!? I'm not prepared and I've had a rough day so can you just leave me alone just for today!?"

Kamijou pleaded his case as Mikoto narrowed her eyes, noting how the instant that she saw the boy she felt as though she was relieved of her own worries. Any issues surrounding Shirai Kuroko seemed less important now that they had met and she was entirely focused on dealing with the boy.

Perhaps it was her own way of distracting her mind but the boy's shouts and presence definitely served to both confuse her and put her in a state of calm. It was a complete contrast yet the boy had served his purpose. Any problem that Mikoto had suddenly seemed less serious when she faced him. And although she wasn't going to attack him when he was surrounded by kids, there were always other opportunities.

The sparks flying from her bangs subsided as Kamijou looked at her in hope as he sighed in relief at what she had done.

"Haaa…..You really can be reasoned with."

"What does that mean? Besides, as you said there are kids around so I can't just do what we usually do with them around, idiot." She said although somewhat implied that the moment that the kids were gone, she was going to resume what she usually did with the boy.

That thought in itself made him pale however he shook his head and glanced down at the kids that were crowding around him as they looked between him and Mikoto.

"So? What do you want you brats? I could have gotten away if it wasn't for you."

Mikoto scowled at that however refrained from commenting as she sat back down on the bench yet angled her head so that she could watch the boy as he was dragged into the playground by all of the children.

"But Spearhead, you haven't played with us in ages! The last time that we played with the soda can was the best!" cried one of the children as Kamijou suddenly gained a dark aura over himself as he refused to make eye contact with anyone there.

"I don't want to be reminded of that…"

Mikoto rose an eyebrow as the children pushed Kamijou into the centre of the playground. Although she had formed her own opinion of him, it seemed as though there was more to the boy than she realised. Of course she knew that he lived his own life but apart from what she had seen, the only time that she ever stayed with the boy was when she was chasing him around.

She knew that he had his own problems and peace yet seeing the scene in front of her only seemed in stark contrast to the strong coward that constantly ran and avoided her attacks without even pausing to strike back.

She knew he was strong in that sense yet seeing that idiot playing with the children in front of him now made Mikoto truly reassess what it was that she thought of him as.

The children placed him in the middle of the playground with him at the centre as they all crowded around him and formed a circle around as if he was a totem pole or something to be worshipped.

"Come on there Spearhead! You know what to do!"

"Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee? I-I mean it's because of you that we are all lucky!"

"All hail Spearheard!"

"Hail!"

Mikoto sat stunned as Kamijou seemed as though he was tired of all of this as one of the other children, a shy one judging by the fact that she stepped forward with her thumbs twiddling and face down, was pushed forward by the other children. Mikoto watched in curiosity as she saw the boy looking at her as if embarrassed by what he was going to do as the girl stood right in front of him.

The children began to chant in a way that seemed at odds with the City of Science and if seen by their parents would have made them worry about the company that they were keeping.

"Bad luck, bad luck, curse us no more. Good luck, good luck, come to the fore!"

The children started circling around the boy while holding hands in a ring, Kamijou putting a hand to his forehead and sighing in exasperation as Mikoto watched, drawn to the sight as the shy girl stepped forward once more so that she was standing right in front of Kamijou, within reaching distance.

"Bad luck, bad luck, curse us more. Good luck, good luck, come to the fore!"

Kamijou did nothing at first before placing his right hand onto the girl's head, something that made her flinch as he stood up right, swallowing all embarrassment as he spoke in a clear and loud voice.

"I, Spearhead, have taken this day to relinquish thou from thy bad luck! Be freed!"

"Bad luck, bad luck, curse us more. Good luck, good luck, come to the fore!"

"Bad luck, bad luck, curse us more. Good luck, good luck, come to the fore!"

Kamijou lifted his hand off the girl's head, putting his pointer and middle fingers to his forehead before rising them both to the sky. He split his legs apart so that it looked like he was stretching them before lowering his fingers in a straight line. They landed on the girl's head as she flinched slightly as she looked up.

The sight that she saw was that Kamijou was looking down at her with a slight smile on his own face as he winked at her as the children stopped their chanting and their spinning around as they looked at their 'Spearhead' and the one that he had 'blessed'.

"It's all done now. May you be blessed with fortune wherever you go." Kamijou said that with a smile as the girl looked in awe at him as Mikoto, the observer put a hand over her mouth in order to try and control her laughter.

What the hell were they doing? No, more than that it was the fact that that idiot had actually put up with the entire thing in the first place. That pose that he had made was ridiculous in itself and the entire thing, with him participating, made it seem as though he had developed a case of eighth grade syndrome or chuunibyou.

She stifled a laugh, raising her head only to see that Kamijou had his own face blushing as he realised how ridiculous he was looking and being seen as. That in itself only made her try harder to force down the laugh that she had coming to her throat in order to prevent herself from making a scene.

She found it hard to breathe before she heard footsteps come toward her, only to see the very same girl having broken free from the group and head towards her, grabbing her hands. That in itself seem to break Mikoto from her stifled laughter as she glanced at the child who was looking as though she truly had been blessed.

"It's your turn now Onee-chan!"

"Huh?"

Even if she wanted to escape, there was nothing that she could do in the face of the children that truly felt as though they were helping her out.

* * *

"So, can you explain this?"

Mikoto asked with a deadpan voice as she swung on the swing. The swing set she was on had three seats on it, her being on the right most side as she talked to the person that was in the middle, to her left.

Kamijou Touma though seemed to have the exact same dead expression that she did as he swung on the swing as well, the girl that had participated in the 'ceremony' being on the left most swing, left of Kamijou. She was swinging too however the point was that neither of them were swinging of their own accord.

Instead, the group of other children behind them were pushing them forward, causing them to swing much to the chagrin of Mikoto and Kamijou. After having being subject to the 'cleansing ritual', something that Mikoto had almost shocked Kamijou over if he hadn't brought his right hand down in time, the three of them had been moved to the swings for an 'initiation' ceremony.

This consisted of the people in question being pushed by the smaller children on the swing. It was incredibly simple and childish yet to avoid making a scene; Mikoto had to play along even though her own heart felt as if anyone saw her in this position, there would be no living it down.

"It seems as though the kids here have gotten it into their head that my misfortune is something that can be taken advantage of. They think that not only in addition to making my life suck by meeting people like you," Mikoto scowled once more at that, "It can be used to take away their bad luck like a magnet leaving them with only good luck."

He spoke in a whisper, perhaps to protect the children's illusions of hope as Mikoto turned towards him with a surprised look on her face.

"Are you serious?"

"This time next month, they'll come and find me with the next bunch of kids to do. Honestly, my classmates think the exact same thing without the chant! I'm not sucking away anyone's bad luck at all but no one seems to believe me!"

Kamijou was pushed forward, just as a bird passed overhead, dropping something onto his shirt that landed with a *splat*. Kamijou looked down at it as Mikoto did too, seeing the excrement that had managed to land dead centre on his shirt, making Kamijou tear up at the sight of it.

Was it merely chance that the bird had crapped at that exact time, when Kamijou when in that exact place where the crap could land exactly where it had? Being a Level 5, Mikoto had no concept of luck, only effort, yet seeing that in front of her now when the boy was always complaining made her reassess that view.

"Yeah. Sure."

"See what I mean!?"

Kamijou shouted yet it seemed as though it was troubling him greatly as Mikoto turned her head and looked back at the kids that were pushing them on the swing as part of the 'initiation' that they were to have to be a part of their group.

"Say, why do you call this idiot Spearhead?"

"Huh?" One of the boys that were pushing her looked up where it seemed as though he was trying to look up her skirt, the cheeky bastard. Mikoto had every right to zap him within an inch of her life however refrained from doing so, merely because that idiot next to her would surely have done something about it. "It's from a movie I saw once. The leader was called Spearhead. And! And it matches his hair!" The kid explained.

Mikoto looked over to the spiky hair and felt that it matched somewhat appropriately, before turning once more and trying to address the issue at hand for her.

"Still, why do you guys needs this idiot to take away your bad luck? Or more accurately, what do you need good luck for?"

"To Level up!" They all said at the same time as Mikoto narrowed her eyes, noting how each of the children said that altogether.

Hearing that from those impressionable minds troubled her greatly. More so that this idiot was condoning such irresponsible practices. It didn't seem as though he would be the one to make people rely on luck when it came to something important like Levelling up. After all, one's Level sort of served as a mark of one's identity.

If it could be shaken by something as wishy-washy as luck, what did that say about the people that worked hard towards achieving a Level up like herself? That they were wasting their effort when luck would allow them to Level up? That would be stepping on their effort and that was something that Mikoto could never allow due to her own ideals.

Yet when she looked at Kamijou it seemed as though he had the exact same expression that she had. Was it possible that since he was the one that was taking away their bad luck that they had never told him the reason why they had asked for the 'ceremony' that they had?

"Whoa there."

Kamijou spoke up immediately on the issue, placing his feet where they scraped along the ground as he stopped his swinging, turning and facing the children that had gathered around them. Mikoto did the same however as Kamijou was about to speak up, it was that Level 5 that did instead.

"Hang on just a moment. What do you mean using luck to Level up?" she asked in a wondering tone. "Do you really think that luck is going to do something about yourself at the end of the day? That luck is going to allow you to Level up?"

It seemed as though the suddenness of the words that Mikoto spoke towards the boy that had spoken up seemed to stun him into submission as she turned to the others around her. Her posture suggested that something was annoying her however she didn't raise her voice as she spoke calmly.

"Does everyone here feel the same?" she asked to which the murmurs that came around seemed to answer that very question for her as the girl that Kamijou had 'blessed' spoke up, seemingly cured from her own shyness.

"Wh-what of it? We need to do all we can to Level up! And using luck is the best way that we can do so!" she cried in a stuttering voice as Mikoto turned towards her, placing her hands on her hips as she stood tall.

"Then what about effort? What about working hard to Level up?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Th-that doesn't always work! I can here when I was four and I've been working on my power the whole time and I am still a Level 1! I've had enough to working hard when it does nothing! If luck is going to make me Level up, then I need all the luck I can get!" One of the younger boys spoke up in frustration as Mikoto turned towards him.

"So, you just gave up? You hit a wall and you just stopped?" Mikoto asked as the first boy that she had addressed spoke in a low tone while looking down at the ground.

"You can't say that."

"I'm sorry?"

"YOU CAN'T SAY THAT! You're a Level 5! You can't say things about us that you don't even know! How blessed were you? How blessed were you to reach where you are? And what about us? We have nothing but our powers so if luck is going to help us where effort will not, then of course we are going to look at luck!"

Mikoto seemed taken aback as shouts of "Yeah!" and "Stop thinking you know everything about us!" came to the fray as Mikoto backed away slightly stunned, looking at the older high school boy that had said nothing as Mikoto had tried to plead her position.

She found him though, looking at her with a look in his eyes that she had seen before from many however never in situations like this. It was expectation. Like the boy was asking her to appeal to the hearts of these children, expecting her to do so. Was it her posture or the way that she had denied the concept of using luck to Level up?

Whatever the case, it seemed as though the high school boy wanted her to continue, to plead her case so that it would reach these children as he stayed silent.

It annoyed her greatly when it came down to it, seeing the boy looking at her like that yet hid her embarrassment and stood tall on the swing that she had been on.

"So what? Yeah, I'm a Level 5 but so what?"

Mikoto's question hung in the air as it seemed to make everyone there fall silent in response as she continued speaking, directing her words to the hearts of those that had gathered around her.

"Yeah, I'm a Level 5! But so what? Does that mean that I was lucky? Sure I guess you can say that. But does that mean that the effort that I put into my power development was something that was worthless? That I would have reached Level 5 anyway without that effort? Of course not! I worked hard, moving up from Level 1 as you said and I reached Level 5 with nothing but my own bare hands!"

"But not all of us have the strength to do that!" called the girl that had been 'cleansed' as Mikoto turned to look at her with kind eyes, putting up a pointer finger as if she were a philosopher reciting a quote from ages past.

"The only time we fail is when we start something new. It is through perfecting this new activity that we excel in it and before you know it, at the end of the day, you'll be the one pushing through your own obstacles to reach the place that you want to hold in your heart." said Mikoto in a wise voice but it was the first boy that spoke up with a look as if he had been hit in the face.

"But you're a Level 5! Not everyone has the same strength that you do! When you hit a wall, you pushed through or climbed over. But for us, that wall is too tough, too high! How can we climb over it when we are weak? How can we Level up without some luck on our side?! Effort can only take you so far! As a Level 5, you could never understand our problems!"

Mikoto gritted her teeth, holding back making a sharp reply. It wasn't that what this boy said was right in any way. The reason why Mikoto was so angry and wanted to reply back to this kid was that she did understand. The horrors of facing a supposedly insurmountable wall, the struggles to climb it and the sense of victory when it was climbed.

She knew the struggles of being weak and had used her effort to reach those new heights. That was why she knew the fruits that labour brought and how in the face of someone making effort, she would support them fully, no matter what their Level or position. If they were working hard to improve something, whether it be big or small, then Mikoto had no reason to not help regardless of Level.

Yet these children had already given up. They had failed when their efforts went unrewarded and because of such sought to look for something that would allow them to transcend the wall that they had reached. Amidst this City of Science, they had turned to luck, ditching effort and taking the easy way out.

Mikoto knew the temptation of wanting to do but she had chosen effort in the end and that in itself was something that she knew was the best decision she had ever made.

But right now, these children were not seeing the face of someone that wanted them to work hard and overcome those barriers. They were seeing someone who had already done it, a Level 5 that was surely looking down on them and telling them that 'effort' and not luck was the way to go. Mikoto wasn't trying to be insensitive but in the eyes of the children, the mocking of a Level 5 was too harsh.

She wanted to help these children, to save them from themselves as they fell into a pit of despair and turned away from hard work so that they could comfort themselves. She wanted them to realise that in the face of adversity, pushing forward to overcome something was the method that produced the most results.

Yet they would not listen to a Level 5 that had already achieved those results and could be said to be looking down on them, despite Mikoto's good intentions.

Which meant-

"Hey."

It was Kamijou that spoke up to the children, all eyes turning towards him as he seemed to scratch his head in confusion at what was happening. Mikoto though saw through the façade, realising that he was putting on an act in order to try and break whatever he was trying to say to the children without seeming as though he knew it all.

"I sort of get what you're saying. Luck against effort and how Biri Biri here has already reached the best spot. I mean, up there where the sun shines, surely luck must seem like a stupid thing. After all, being a Level 5 means that you don't need effort."

"Yeah!"

"Go Spearhead!"

"You tell that Level 5!"

"But-"

Before Mikoto could protest, the boy had cut off the words of the kids around him with a short word as he continued what he was saying to them.

"How much effort did that take I wonder? When Biri Biri here was a Level 1, how much effort and pushing did it take for her to reach Level 2? Maybe it was luck, sure. But then she did it again to Level 3! Was that luck? Maybe, if she was really lucky, sure. But she did it again to Level 4! I find it hard to believe that she was lucky to that extent. And then Biri Biri pushed past the final boundaries to Level 5. That's not luck anymore. You know exactly what pushed her through all of those Level barriers."

Kamijou spoke clearly, glancing at Mikoto in order to allow her to once more take over as Kamijou asked her a very basic question that made all of the kids stop.

"So, Biri Biri, I have to ask you. How many times did you think of giving up when you hit a wall?"

Mikoto looked at the boy with narrowed eyes as the kids looked at her for her response. She was impressed, seeing how the boy had turned the hostile children and appealed to their humanity by making Mikoto look less like a Level 5 and more like someone that had 'reached there from the bottom'.

They had been caught up in his pace, much like she had constantly and seeing it once more applied here only pissed her off.

His carefree manner and the way that he treated everyone as equals on the same playing field, it was something that Mikoto had a tough time dealing with, especially the former more than the latter. After all, it was the latter that allowed Mikoto to speak to these children without wanting to put them down.

She merely smiled though and let out a small chuckle.

"How many times did I think of giving up? Oh, so many. There was this time when I was at Level 3 and no matter how much I worked, I never got over that barrier. But I knew that the moment that I relied on something other than myself that I would surely never live it down. It was me and I wanted to help myself. Nothing else was going to do in that case. If I was going to change myself in some way, then it had to be by my own hands. And so I pushed forward without looking back or halting as doubts filled my mind. And through those sweat and tears, I did something that I can be proud of. Not because I reached Level 5. But because it was me that did it through nothing but my own effort."

Mikoto spoke towards the children that were looking at her as they looked away, perhaps slightly ashamed that they had done something that Mikoto had wanted to do so many times before.

They had given up and they had turned to luck in order to escape from their effort. They had given up and turned away from the pain and sweat that effort provided while thinking that 'everything will be fine'. They conveniently told themselves a convenient lie because working was something that would work, take time and mean that they had to rely on themselves.

But how could they do that when they couldn't even Level up?

They had turned to luck and unlike that radiant Level 5 had felt that doing so was natural because of the wall that they had hit.

"But!" The first boy that Mikoto had spoken to spoke up to her. "Sometimes it doesn't work! Sometimes effort doesn't get us anywhere!"

"And when it does?" asked Mikoto with a small smile. "I'm not going to say something like 'Work harder'. When you hit a wall, sometimes no matter how hard you work you can't push through it. But effort doesn't mean pushing through everything. Sometimes, you just have to think outside the box and work towards a different method that you never thought of. But even so, you're thinking of this the wrong way."

Ah.

As Mikoto came to her own conclusion about the problem that these children were facing, something occurred to her as she paused for a moment.

These children were only thinking of the negatives of effort. It took time, caused pain and sometimes never produced the results that they wanted. But at the end of the day, they had restricted their gazes to the negatives as excuses to get away from the problem at hand and rely on luck.

Wasn't that exactly what she was doing with the problem of Shirai Kuroko right now?

She was looking at the negatives, had run away and tried to think of a way to come up with how to deal with the problem at the source.

But never once, never once had she ever…..

"Had you ever thought of looking at the positives?" Mikoto let the question hang in the air as the faces of the children looked rather confused as Mikoto started once again catching the small smile on Kamijou's lips.

It seemed as though she had hit the nail on the head when it came to the thoughts that Kamijou was having right now, rather annoyed that their thoughts were so in sync when it came to this issue. But then again, she had managed to come up with a solution to her own problem because she had stayed with the boy and dealt with his. Her reason for staying in the park in the first place, to find him and chase him as to escape from her own problems seemed to have solved them instead.

And there he was, unaware that because of him, she had managed to come to the solution to her own conflict, wearing that stupid smile as if he truly felt peace given what Mikoto was saying.

She had put their usual routine on pause for this and right now, given that they were not chasing each other around, Mikoto felt something rise to her own lips.

Mikoto didn't want to admit it but she knew herself that she was sporting a stupid smile much like the one the boy had not only because she had solved her own problem but also because she had managed to reach a solution for this one.

And she once more wondered why in the world being with this boy disrupted her pace so much that it was on the verge of being enjoyable right in this moment.

"You've only been looking at why effort is bad, but what about when it is good? What about when you have worked hard to do something and you pull through? You push at a wall and it topples? You get that feeling inside you, like you could rule the world just for having worked hard and succeeded." Mikoto said those words, having spoken from experience as the children looked at her, waiting for her to say more as if they knew exactly what she was talking about.

"Effort is only bad when you make it so. Yes, hard work takes time. Yes, hard work sometimes doesn't mean that you will always get the results that you want. But at the same time if we only look at what is wrong with effort then it is never going to be right. And effort is something that I put in nonstop to reach where I am now. And let me tell you, it's worth it.

"Even if you hit that wall that can never be climbed, the fact that you reached where you are now because of that effort makes it worth it. So, don't rely on luck. Rely on yourselves and look at the positives."

Mikoto sat down on the swing and grinned as all of the children looked at her with gazes that made it seem as though they had never had any one talk to them the way that she was right now.

Her tone was calm and she was trying to appeal to their inner characters instead of claiming that they were the evil ones after having given up. Mikoto forgave them for that and wanted those children to work at improving themselves a bit harder instead of just giving up.

And she did so not only because she wanted those children to grow in character but also because she knew that leaving things as they were now would surely bring those children despair.

"And then I am sure that no matter what wall you face, as long as you do it using what you have with you, even if it cannot be toppled, you'll know that you did your best. You know that you gave it your all and no one can look down on you because of it. Because you put in the effort and did all you could. It has nothing to do with luck. It was entirely you and you should be proud of that."

Mikoto nodded to herself.

"I know I am. I looked at the positives and moved forward. So what do you say? Do you all want to try harder? Not doing so using luck but at the very least, trying to focus on effort a bit more?" she asked in a calm voice as the children looked at each other with concerned gazes and spoke in hushed tones.

Had they really given up on themselves when they had turned to luck? Were they only looking at the negatives of effort that they never looked at the positives and the elated feeling one got when they actually succeeded?

There was someone here that had suffered under the weight of all of that effort, never giving up and never stopping to succumb to the temptation that luck and other things provided. She pushed with all of her might until she reached the stage where she was.

It was a bumpy road but no one could look at and mock her for having acquired that power. After all, she worked hard for it and that in itself made it all the more worth it.

The Railgun was a Level 5 that deserved respect. Not only because she had reached the fabled stage that only 7 people had so far but also because she had done so with nothing but her own hands.

In the face of a positive like that, that pure effort could have allowed someone to reach Level 5, did they want to turn to something like luck and give up on themselves?

"Can…." The first boy that Mikoto had talked to spoke to her. "Can we really do it? Can we really use effort and make ourselves better?"

Mikoto grinned at the boy and gave him a thumbs up.

"Sure. There's no one there to tell you different. And I'll support you the entire way if you ever need it. If you use effort, there is nothing stopping me from helping you achieve your dreams."

Those words seemed to act as a trigger as the eyes of the children around her lit up like a Christmas tree as they all looked at each other with those happy gazes as the first boy turned towards Kamijou.

"Spearhead, do you think we can do it?" He asked to which Kamijou crossed his arms and tilted his head.

"Hmmm…..I dunno. But then again….you have to use effort to prove me wrong." he said as the boy grinned and punched Kamijou in the arm rather hard.

"Well then I'll make you and that Level 5 proud of me! I'll work hard and Level up! I'll do it with your and the Level 5's blessing!" The boy said before turning to the others and shouting to them.

"Come on guys! What are we waiting around here for!? Let's go and make the world ours!" He shouted as he ran off into the distance, being followed by the other children who left only after punching Kamijou in the arm as the boy had.

When all of them had gathered at the entrance of the playground, they all turned around and looked at the older people on the swings as they all cupped their hands and shouted to them at the top of their voice in unison.

"Wish us luck! We'll make you proud for sure!"

Mikoto grinned in response, giving them a thumbs up as she stood on the swing while Kamijou waved to them while still on the swing and rubbing his sore arm. As soon as the children saw those responses, they turned and ran out of the park, ready to tackle the day using nothing but their own effort.

And they would do so for themselves and by themselves. It was surely a pure thing however seeing something sparked in inspiration in the hearts of those children only made the middle school student and the high schooler watch them head off and wish them luck.

The both of them sat in silence, unsure of what to say to the other as it was Kamijou that spoke up first, standing and getting ready to leave. He didn't do so immediately though as he turned to face Mikoto head on with a kind smile on his face.

"You know Biri Biri, I think I coloured you wrong a bit."

"Stop calling me that. And what in the world are you talking about?" asked Mikoto in a curious tone as Kamijou indicated behind him with his thumb.

"I always felt as though Level 5s had something of their own pride and secrets that they kept to themselves about reaching where they did. I didn't think that they would be as open about their own struggles as you were."

"Well, the kids there would have relied on their own good luck and done nothing if I didn't say that."

"But you still couldn't bear to see them fall of their own accord without anything to support them. Now that they have effort to rely on, there's something driving them instead of luck that they wanted from me. You looked at their hearts instead of something basic like Level and you wanted them to move forward despite it. Seeing such a thing from a Level 5 like you is unexpected." He explained.

Mikoto rose an eyebrow at that.

"What, did you think that all Level 5s are self-centred or something?"

"Not really. Just that maybe they would be aware of their own position and be mindful of such in the face of others. Something like 'I'm a Level 5 and I demand respect' sort of thing." replied Kamijou.

"Not all of us are like that, Besides, I couldn't just leave them alone. This was partially your fault in the first place as well you idiot."

"I won't deny that. But you still looked out for them and wanted to see them succeed despite their short comings. Many people I know would not do that; look out for others and appeal to human nature like that in the way you did. You did a good thing Biri Biri. Looking at what you did….I think that maybe my impression of you has changed a bit. You're not as bad as I thought. Try a bit harder though and you might be seen as 'cute'. Use that effort that you speak of."

Mikoto suddenly did a spit take at the casual remark that Kamijou made, unconsciously sending a lightning spear straight for him that he blocked with his right hand on instinct.

"C-Cute!? What in the world are you thinking you bloody blockhead?! Whatever you think of me, there's no way that I will ever lean towards being that!"

"I was saying that you MIGHT be seen as such! I never said that you actually were! Can't you spare some of that love and care you showed those kids and share it with this Kamijou-san!? I could have died just then!"

"Stop exaggerating! Come to think of it, now that everyone is gone, we can get back to our normal routine!"

"I don't want to think of what we do as 'normal'! Do you feel nothing when you chase me around? You aren't secretly taking pictures of my ass when I'm running around are you?!"

"A-A-A-A-Ass!? D-Do you think of nothing but mocking me wherever you go? There's n-n-n-n-no way that I would ever consider doing that!" Mikoto's face went red as she felt her eyes move towards the boy's backside that he mentioned as he covered it with his left hand and waved his right in front of his face.

"Y-You don't have to be that serious about it. But for precautions sake, can we not do this today?"

"I'm not interested in you or your ass! Just die already!"

With that Misaka Mikoto fired another lightning spear straight for the boy that he intercepted with his right hand with a pale face as he slowly started backing away. The both of them already knew exactly what was going to happen at this point; it had been carved into their souls and bodies for the past few days that there was no introduction needed.

Mikoto lowered her body in order to pounce as the boy reacted first.

His foot kicked up suddenly, throwing dirt and dust into Mikoto's unsuspecting face as some of it got caught in her eyes and mouth as she started to cough suddenly and violently. She opened and rubbed her eyes, only to see the figure of a retreating boy as he picked up his bag and fled for everything he was worth.

And in her vision was his back and his shaking as-

"I'M NOT INTERESTED IN YOU OR YOUR ASS!"

"I heard you the first time so you don't have to get so defe-gyaaaaaaah?! Sh-Shit, did I step on a landmine or something there?! Don't tell me you actually have an ass fetish!? I just discussed this with Aogami but hearing it from you!? Such misfortune!"

"Get back here and I'll fry you and your ass into oblivion!"

Mikoto leaped into the air as she pursued her target with the speed of a heightened predator as onlookers watched the two of them running around for their lives or prey.

Many of them blinked in confusion but for those that had seen them do this so many times before, they only shook their heads and lamented on one fact.

It really was a normal day for the both of them when this happened.

* * *

75.6 kilometres.

Basically a marathon and a bit and Misaka Mikoto was exhausted as she walked into her dorm room, opening the door and catching sight of the person that had caused her so much inner turmoil recently.

"Onee-sama!"

Shirai Kuroko instantly leaped up from the bed, which was incidentally Mikoto's, as she looked at the girl that had walked and immediately had her face turn to worry as she saw the state that she was in.

"A-Are you alright? What were you doing at this hour? Look, your perfect skin has been smudged by dirt. Wh-Who did this?! As your herald, I have an obligation to hunt them down and-"

"Shirai-san….no, Kuroko." said Mikoto as she spoke to Shirai who suddenly went wide eyed at the familiarity that Mikoto had spoken to her with, taking a step back in surprise.

This had been the issue that had stumped Mikoto from the beginning of the day. Unable to deal with her roommate's 'tendencies' she had fled but it had been earlier in the day when she was discussing the reason why effort was a hard but fruitful path with that idiot, that she had realised a basic point.

She had only been looking at the negatives of Shirai Kuroko, never the positives.

Sure, Shirai didn't have a concept of personal space, was perverted, strange, clingy and far-out weird but this girl was her new roommate. She was the person that Mikoto might share the rest of her middle school experience with and the bonds that were to be shared with this girl weren't something that Mikoto could just ignore and hope never formed.

Looking at the positives, as she had said herself needed to be done, there was a girl here that was going to be Mikoto's partner in crime for the next few months, perhaps years.

So was there a reason to deny her? To push her away when they were going to be close for the next few months?

This solution though was something that she had reached because of that idiot and although he was jumping down an elevator shaft from what Mikoto had last seen of him, it was because of him that Mikoto could form the words that she did now.

"I look forward to staying with you. I'll be in your care Shirai Kuroko."

Shirai went wide eyed at the words that Mikoto said to her, words of acceptance that she had felt that she would have to earn and word hard to achieve. Yet here those words were, words that suggested that Mikoto was ready to accept Shirai Kuroko for who she was, for good and for bad.

"Onee-sama….."

Shirai looked at Mikoto for a moment, taking in the moment before a dangerous glare entered her eyes.

"Th-then you don't mind me searching through your pant-"

"If you do that though, I'll be happy to get another roommate~." replied Mikoto as she slowly pushed past Shirai. "But for now Kuroko, I just want to rest. I've had a tough night and was falsely accused of having an ass fetish for the past few hours so I'm beat. That goddamn idiot. What's so good about asses anyw…."

Mikoto didn't finish her sentence as she collapsed on her bed, closing her eyes and letting the fatigue of the night slowly wash over her. Shirai stood by her side, blinking in surprise before only smiling slightly as she pulled her blanket over her roommate. She sat on her own bed, thinking about the acceptance that Mikoto had shown her despite her hesitation in the morning.

She truly did reach out to anyone that she thought was worth her time and that in itself only made Shirai Kuroko glad to be at her side in this one moment as she watched her drift off into sleep.

"Good night Onee-sama," said Shirai with that smile before it turned slowly into a frown. "Although I will have to question who this 'idiot' is."

After all, there was just one thing about Misaka Mikoto that Shirai could not ignore right now.

And that was the small and calm smile that had grown on her face when she had mentioned that idiot.

* * *

**Done!**

**So what did you think?**

**In terms of 'parts', this could be broken into two problems. The first was of course the Kuroko problem and the second was the problem related to the children and how they saw their own effort as fruitless and gave up, turning to luck.**

**For Mikoto, I felt as though in the face of such thinking, she can understand the temptation but never the reason for actually giving up because of how she worked hard from the get go. In a way, that could be seen as heartless but her own speech here in how looking at the positives of effort and her own tone made her seem more like a true 'Onee-sama' as it were as she tried to motivate the children.**

**And it was also here and at this point that Touma mentioned that made him reassess what he thought of her. After all, she is someone that rewards and has been rewarded by effort and wants to make sure that other people realise that it is this effort that she wants them to experience. She saved those children from themselves and motivated them when they had nothing to do with her and in a way Touma respects her for that and how she treats others.**

**The 'looking at the positives' thinking that Touma inspired her to reach then flowed and solved the Kuroko problem around her acceptance. It wasn't the focus but the one line that Mikoto says to accept Kuroko is perhaps extremely important in the long run.**

**There's not really much I can say on this part but I hope that you enjoyed it (especially you Ame No Mikoto), looked at Mikoto in a new light like Touma did and felt that the inner workings of the Level 5 known as Misaka Mikoto were revealed to you a bit better.**

**That's only my wish though!**

**And as always,  
Review if you please.**

**And I'll see when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**Thinking about it, given how Mikoto always chases Touma around, I had him call out on it as Accelerator does in OT 3 about her having an ass fetish for Touma. Naturally there was no mercy from Mikoto…..**


	28. The Distance Between Them II

**Once again, another original!**

**For some reason, I have an affinity with Meigo Arisa. I have no problems with Shutaura Sequenzia but it's just Arisa as a character that always get me thinking of how I can use her in creative ways. I suppose that in a series of this size, it's only natural that you would get something like this where there is a 'black box' character of hidden potential such as Tatsugami Otohime and Saten Ruiko.**

**As you can see this is another part of an already written one-shot, so I hope that you can enjoy this one as much as you did the other one in this 'series' that I ended up getting together.**

**I've kept this one beginning short! I DID IT! Well...at least I tried to...**

**But here we are with the Q &amp; A. But before we get into that, many people ended up commenting on the as fetish point last chapter. I had no idea such a thing would end up so popular but I'm glad it was I guess!**

**dragonrider66: Accelerator calls out the ass shaking back when he was chasing #10031 through the alleyway. If you have a copy of OT 3, I'm sure that he calls it out in one of the colour illustrations so if you want to see where it was, it's there. As for what made Kuroko have her big obsession with Mikoto…we know why she admires Mikoto as she stands at the head of the pack but as for the big obsession, that is anyone's guess.**

**wildarms13: I'll comment on this one before I get into other reviews because the point raised here is pretty relevant. The Parameter List is a big point to be considered with everything that Mikoto says about effort. While we can believe that everything that she says is true; that always striving forward does in fact achieve results, if we look at what she has achieved as being something that others decided she could, where does that leave everyone else? Does it mean that their effort is worthless and not going to get the same results? Does it mean that the words she said to those children are something that can never be realised as the truth? If you can agree with what Mikoto says, that in turn shows that you acknowledge that you and she know the benefits of effort but when Mikoto was pushed along without her knowledge in the first place, it sorts of raises the question if she can have the right to talk about 'effort' when it was pre-decided that she would reach Level 5. It's definitely an interesting question so if you re-read last chapter with those sort of questions in mind, you can an entirely different feel to it. Thanks for raising the point of the Parameter List; it's pretty important when you look at what Mikoto is saying about effort and the reality.**

**pop2ww: You did it again! Still love these long reviews. Moving forward here I think is something that we find to be the biggest obstacle of all despite effort. We know failure and we know success but it's turning the former into the latter despite the struggles we face that I think is perhaps the greatest challenge when starting something new. In this sense, seeing that Mikoto truly believes that we can all achieve something if we grasp and fight with everything that we have is truly an inspirational thing. But at the same time, ominous questions arise when we consider the Parameter List and how her own effort was due to someone else. But whatever the case, I like to believe that effort still pushes people forward and serves as a reminder that we can always move past failure and remember the benefits of success whatever situation we are in. And I'm also glad that you picked up the Heavy Object anime! It was worth it wasn't it? And I'd also like to thank you for viewing my works here as something that can be educational and motivational in a sense. I usually try and get across that people are 'human' in this series but it sometimes ends up with messages around morals or behaviour along the lines without me realising it! I'm not trying to say that 'my way is the best way' as it's subjective but seeing you look at what I say and comment on it makes me happy.**

**And the cannibalism idea is pretty mild given what I have planned…Still there is heaps of Kamachi stuff to keep you occupied until (or if) Season 3 comes out so I hope you enjoy. And I'll start by trying to describe the OCs in ACUL0 right now, covering the three main enemies in Mikoto's arc mainly because doing them separately when they all appeared at once is pretty pointless.**

**Imaizumi Yukiko: It was at this point that I wanted to try and make the enemies here a bit more structured and more than the standard 'goon' that appeared in the sidelines. Having the enemies as Tokiwadai students then added a bit of character to them but Yukiko's original character design in my head was maybe something along the lines of Erza Scarlet from Fairy Tail with maybe shorter hair and a more adolescent girlish figure. She is a middle school student and I wanted to show that. As the leader as well I wanted to show that character design that added something that was different from the others too.**

**Tatsuno Yayoi: Her design was a lot like Irori from Unbreakable Machine Doll except maybe with a more intense face to show that she is part of a group instead of a standalone character. While I wanted her personality to be softer, she sort of had a feel for me that her true strength was with others rather than individually so I wanted to give her a more 'sheltered' appearance to reflect that reliance.**

**Higuchi Sumi: Her design fits with Kasugano Yukariko from Golden Marriage except again with a more intense face to fit her friends. I wanted to sort of connect the three of them in some way while at the same time making them seem like individuals but the success of that is up to you. Keep in mind though that all of these OCs are middle school students and their immaturity should be reflected in their face and bodies as well.**

**Hopefully that answered your questions for those OCs there. (I think I should make a proper note of these and at the end of ACUL0 post them all up for greater insight into the characters…)**

**ryuhayabusa298: I have another chapter of The Rumour up and ready to go but commitments means that I haven't had a chance to overlook it before sending it off to my beta. Maybe when the school term ends I'll end up updating but I can't make any promises.**

**Guest: I think we all wonder how Touma ends up surviving what he does. Perhaps with all of the chaos he has faced, his body has developed an unnatural resistance to death or something?**

**Agent Nine: Yeah, your comments really are taken to heart. I want to try and make it less wordy but whenever I get a pace up, I find it hard to take things down because I know there's a reason that the long paragraphs are there in the first place. I'll see if I can shorten the feel to 2 or 3 paragraphs without getting them too long but I sort of wanted to get clarity and the point across, even though that comes at the cost of a lot of words. Thank you though for pointing this out and sticking with me regardless. I'll see what I can do and your comments here really help me a lot.**

**ishak13: Hi there and thanks for reading! As for a Mahuoka crossover fic, I think it would end up having a structure similar to The Endless Hell where Touma comes across Tatsuya's world because of Othinus but I know next to nothing about the series. The first thing I sort of go for when I do these is getting the characters right and I feel as though I won't be able to do that for Mahouka. If I had time to look at the 18 novels I would but it would be a stretch. Right now, don't expect anything though. I'm sorry for letting you down in this respect but thank you for asking about it.**

**Red Glasses: Well….the girl that made an official appearance in April Fools will appear eventually…. Again though thank you for your kind words and I hope you enjoy this!**

**Anon (Guest): I have a feeling that the simultaneous tapping of the pencils might have caused a few major tremors however I'm not so sure about doing damage to the building. If though the entire structure of the building was weakened enough….**

**Yet before we begin, I want to thank two people.**

**The first: as usual it's PokeRescue18. I always write this in, merely because it is that important to thank him for his work. I can't do so enough and I really want to express my thanks once more.**

**And to you, the reader. I seriously can't thank you enough either. I hope that my thanks can be expressed through this medium in a proper way and that you do what I hope you always do here:**

**Enjoy.**

**But I guess due to the nature of this one shot, I should make the disclaimer that would apply specifically to this one-shot just to be safe and avoid any legal trouble should it arise.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the songs and the lyrics that are mentioned in this fanfiction. They are owned by the singer Sachika Misawa, the writer, composer and arranger Iuchi Maiko, the staff that produced the movie A Certain Magical Index – The Miracle of Endymion (an excellent movie) and the producer of the album that the songs mentioned here are in, Warner Home Video as well as other related parties. Overall, I own nothing that is mentioned in this fanfiction.**

**There. There's the disclaimer for those that didn't think it would apply and once more I hope that you enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

The Work that No One Considers. _Misfortune_Talk._

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, here we are."

A male voice resounded through the air, sounding rather tired as two figures that were walking in front of him turned around, one of them looking rather apologetic while the other looked as if they were rather disappointed given the male figure's slowness.

Kamijou Touma though only ignored Index's upset glance as he, Index and the third figure found themselves standing in the underground shopping mall in District 7. People moved up and down the stairs where the trio of people were currently standing as they all moved out of the way to the side in order to prevent blocking them.

Kamijou and Index looked at the passing people before the former turned towards their companion.

"So, where exactly are you performing today?"

Kamijou asked the final member of their group, someone that currently was dressed in a rather clandestine way, probably because of the fame that they had accumulated over the past few days with the opening ceremony of the space elevator Endymion coming up, held by Orbit Portal. Although it was only two days away, there was still a busy feel within Academy City as anticipation rose for the ceremony itself.

Tickets had apparently sold out within the first 12 hours of them appearing online and the disappointment of those that had missed out could be felt in the air. Either with the sight of adults or students looking at the space elevator in melancholy, it was easy to tell who had missed out on the tickets that had been online.

True to form and keeping with his usual unlucky self, Kamijou himself had tried to purchase tickets however the internet at his dorm had suddenly broken down on the day that he had tried to order. When he had actually managed to reach somewhere with internet access, his forgotten credit card information meant that he had to track down Index and her companion through the City in order to purchase the tickets as they had his credit card and would not answer their phones.

He had been literally 6 seconds late after everything had sold out, causing the boy to truly feel both disappointed and rather embarrassed at how he had forgotten his credit card information in the first place.

Naturally, Index had been disappointed but none more so than their current roommate and also the third person of the group that made up their trio.

Meigo Arisa looked up at Kamijou as he held all of her performing equipment, such as her piano, switchboard and other electronics as she fidgeted with her thumbs before looking down.

Currently, she was the one that was dressed in a clandestine way, much like the models that wanted to avoid the media photographing them furiously as they did something as insignificant as going to the shops to purchase food.

With black sunglasses and her usual light blue near grey newsboy hat, her face was covered from the curious crowds that ignored her presence as she hid her face. Her pink hair was tied into a bun underneath her hat, giving the impression that it was short instead of long and the casual clothes that she always wore with the Kamijou-Index duo were currently donned, her blue jeans and white jumper.

On the other hand, the casual clothes of Kamijou, his usual white shirt with blue sleeves and brown pants along with Index's nun's habit made the both of them stand out (the latter more than the former) meaning that as people's interests were taken by Index and her clothes, Arisa was relatively unseen in the trio.

"Y-You didn't have to come here Touma-kun. I mean after all; this is nothing more than me trying to blow off some steam…"

"Don't be ridiculous. I can't just let you do this on your own. I'll help when I can and besides, I may as well do some shopping while I'm here. All of a sudden, I have to basically consider two girls with Index-like appetites and there's no way that Orbit Portal is going to reimburse me for Arisa…." Kamijou said his words cheerfully although the last comment seemed rather dark as he hung his head.

Arisa though only tilted her head in response to her confusion as Index looked at Arisa and took her by the hands.

"Come on then Ar-!" Index stopped before she said Arisa's name in public for fear of exposing her when she tried so hard to conceal herself. "Where are you going to do you-know-what?"

"W-Well Index-chan, there is no 'set' place. You know what I'm going to be doing right?" she asked in a careful tone as to ensure that no one recognised her distinct voice among those from the crowd in the underground mall.

"Right! That music thing that you were doing when we first met!" called Index cheerfully as Sphynx within her arms meowed as if to say "Please owner…let me feel the warmth of your habit…".

"It's called busking Index." explained Kamijou as he lowered the equipment that Arisa was going to use for busking to the ground. "Do you have any idea where you are going to be doing it at all, or just-"

"N-no." said Arisa as she fidgeted once more with her thumbs, clearly embarrassed that he and Index had come along. "Before I was selected for the Endymion ceremony, I would just find a good spot with a lot of people and just play. I wanted to return to my normal routine without Orbit Portal's permission so I wonder if it's alright…."

Arisa said that as she looked around herself, clearly worried that an Orbit Portal representative would walk up to her and prevent her from doing a live concert without any backing or preparation of any kind.

Whether it was to relax in order to get prepared for the big event of the opening ceremony or merely to get back into a routine that Meigo Arisa did before becoming _the _Meigo Arisa, Arisa at her core merely wanted to sing to the crowds in front of her.

With the strangers that had attacked her when she had been with Kamijou and Index before as well as the explosion in the mall, it seemed as though her singing did nothing but bring harm to others that managed to get caught up in its claws.

But even so, it was these two, Kamijou Touma and Index that had vowed to find a way to protect her and find a way for Arisa to sing without harming anyone. She was truly thankful for the both of them and yet now it was her selfishness that was making them work hard once more.

"I think it should be fine. After all, you work for them!" called Index with that same cheerfulness as both Kamijou and Arisa looked at her and smiled to each other.

"There's no one stopping us for now and that means that it should be alright. Just find a location. I'll set up the way that you told me to and then I'll leave everything to you. I have a feeling though that it might be better to at least get your recognition over and done with so that you don't have people swarming you for an autograph." noted Kamijou casually to which Index merely crossed her arms and shook her head as if she were the most important person in the world.

"But Touma, we have her living with us! Don't you think that we get something better than an autograph!? Ah, have you at least taken a picture of her with your beeping and ringing thingy?!"

"It's a cell phone. A. Cell. Phone. You have one so can you at least remember the name of it? But yeah, having the real thing in the flesh is something of an honour." Kamijou turned towards Arisa fully and went to one knee, holding out one hand as if he were proposing to her. Or at least that was how it looked to Arisa.

She went red in the face as she slowly backed away, trying to stop her racing thoughts at the scene in front of her as Kamijou spoke, oblivious to the embarrassing action that he was doing.

"It is wondrous to be in your presence, our great Princess. Please, grace us with the pleasure of your voice once more than us humble mortals may bask in its glory." He said, his posture attempting to be that of a handsome (or rather average-looking) knight rather than a proposal although Arisa still could not get the latter image out of her head for some reason.

She shook her head and hands in front of her face violently in a desperate attempt to calm her racing heart as she spoke in flustered tones.

"N-No, Touma-kun you don't have to do that! It's embarrassing!"

Index though only seemed to hop on the band wagon that Kamijou had provided, doing the same as he was, the both of them acting rather humorously in the grand scope of things.

"Indeed! Please, make us worthy to see the Lord's world as a whole, to see the beauty it provides!"

"I-Index-chan!? Please stop! It's embarrassing I told you! B-Besides, having the 'real thing' with you isn't all that great! Like that time when Touma-kun-"

Arisa stopped speaking; having trouble continuing as her face continued to go red from the memory of perhaps the only bad thing that had happened to her while she had been in the company of the two of them at Kamijou's dorm. After all, having her naked body seen was not something that she wanted to be reminded of but the fact that it was the only bad thing that she had experienced spoke volumes of the times that she had spent with the Level 0 Kamijou Touma and the nun Index.

Index looked up, her own face red as she recalled the incident where Touma had walked in on them both naked. Yet she narrowed her eyes at Arisa slightly as if she were suspecting something before Kamijou rose his head up and tilted it in confusion.

"Huh? What did I do?"

"N-Never mind Touma-kun…" Arisa said in a wooden voice as she was somewhat glad that he had forgotten the incident although was rather amazed at the fact that he had. Was it really not that memorable, her own body? She started having self-conscious thoughts as Index merely turned towards Kamijou.

"Touma! Did you really not even bother to recall the embarrassment that the two of us faced when you walked in on us?! Was it that horrible a sight that you erased it from your memory!? Think about the pride that us girls have won't you!?"

Those words were the kicker as numerous people instantly turned to where Index, Kamijou and Arisa were standing, going wide eyed and their mouths dropping as they heard what the boy had done to the girls. What did that nun mean 'walked in'? What did that lucky bastard 'see'?!

"Y-You mean that?! Well, no I didn't forget but it was just that there's a lot going on for me at the moment such as thinking of a way to feed you Index and, no, I'm not trying to make a comment on your body or the other one's either!" Whether it be out of consideration to not mention her name as to not attract attention, Kamijou indicated to Arisa although she hung her head, feeling rather annoyed at the fact that he had called her the 'other one'.

"So you have nothing to say to us!?" asked Index, recalling the fact that Kamijou hadn't even apologised (or had he, it was rather a blur given all the screaming and crying of "Such misfortune"?).

"Y-You want me to actually comment on it!?" Kamijou though reached a misunderstanding of what Index wanted him to say as he racked his brain for thoughts on the matter as he turned away with a rather red face himself and coughed.

He knew this trap. He had fallen for it on August 31st. Saying nothing would surely get him bitten so in order to make sure that he came it of this unscathed he needed to complement the girls like he had never complemented someone before!

It was embarrassing as heck but anything to avoid this biting hell!

"W-Well if I had to say something," Kamijou started as he gave another cough. "It would be that despite both of your ages, y-your skin gave a soft scent and had a shiny smooth-gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?! Wh-what did I do wrong this tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!?"

Kamijou yelled out as Index, with a blushing face, grabbed onto his head out of pure embarrassment at his words while Arisa nearby hid her face with her hands, squatted and turned away from the both of them, a burning on her face clearly not going away for the time being. She was sure it was the same with Index but from her reaction it seemed as though she had something going on with Touma more than she had let on when the two of them were in the bath.

She felt her own eyes narrowed when she looked at Index however seeing Kamijou on the ground, trying to get Index off only made the red on her face return as she looked away and made soft squealing sounds because of the embarrassment.

"Waitwaitwait! C-Come on Index-san, we have things to do! We have to find a spot to busk so that you-know-who can at least gain some peace of mind and relax after everything that has happened!" Kamijou pleaded with some additional whimpering as Index let go of the boy's head and looked at Arisa who was squatting on the ground.

"You're right Touma. This can wait until later."

"Later?! I wanted to say this for a while but for someone that takes care of you 24/7, you don't really have much respect for m- Hey! Are you listening?!" Kamijou yelled at Index as she ignored him and walked over to the squatting girl as she placed a hand on her hat.

"Come on now Arisa. We have to try and do our best to make sure that you are the most relaxed. After all, you are the star!" Index whispered into her ear as Arisa looked at the nun. She turned to Kamijou that was slowly dragging himself along the ground to reach Arisa's equipment as it seemed to her that he was ready to leave, just as Index was.

Index took her by the hand and lifted her up as Kamijou reached and picked up the necessary equipment that he had to set up to make sure that Arisa had the chance to busk to her heart's content.

"I look forward to your performance." He said as he gathered all of the equipment together as she merely slowly nodded, trying hard to keep up with the change of pace.

But soon, it would be her that would start that change of pace. It would be up to her to show just how much effort she had put into working hard and making sure her dream came true. Out of all of the auditions to perform in the opening ceremony of the Endymion space elevator, she had been chosen out of all of them.

Yet what she was doing right now was not a part of any of that. It was only her own selfishness trying to calm her own racing heart. But even so, that did not mean that she had to slack off in the face of such a thing.

She would give it her all and she let that thought fill her entire being.

And so she nodded.

"I'll make it something that you can be proud of."

* * *

Meigo Arisa breathed in as she sat at her piano, surrounded by people as she watched the crowds around her.

This was it; crunch time.

Using her own knowledge of good busking areas before she became famous, Arisa had found a good spot for her to busk in the public eye. Not an event that was a part of the official Orbit Portal campaign for the Endymion, this was nothing more than a selfish request from her in order to try and calm herself.

Her dream was to play on a big stage, in a hall that was filled with numerous people.

Yet to achieve those dreams, she had to take small steps. She was on the way to achieve that dream, constantly playing in halls to impress her fans for the Endymion. Yet the biggest stage of all had yet to be reached, the stage on the Endymion itself.

Even so, it had been those small steps that had allowed her to be recognised in the public eye, contributing to her own fame. And somehow, she just couldn't let go of those small steps, wanting to return once more to that small stage so that she could play to those that listened.

Such a thing was incredibly calming for her, more than she knew and she knew that in anticipation for the big event that was to come for her, she had to be calm and relaxed.

Just like she was feeling right now as she sat in front of her piano, facing the crowd that walked around her, often looking at her in curiosity as she had yet to play.

This feeling within her, an electricity that seemed ready to burst as soon as she played and sang; she knew how soothing it felt and the happiness she got from it. It was more than she could ask for as she watched the only person that stood directly in front of her right now.

Index looked at Meigo Arisa, who was still wearing her disguise, with anticipation, holding onto Sphynx rather tightly as the cat squirmed in her arms as if to say "Please….let me go…". Arisa smiled at her, as the sign stating that it was _the _Meigo Arisa performing had not been put up by Kamijou, but at the same time let her gaze wonder.

She knew she had to start soon.

But where was her 'bodyguard'? The boy that had set up all of this, receiving the occasional electric shock, and allowed her to sing and achieve her dream? At the very least, she wanted him to see her perform, as he had before. But she never caught sight of him after he had set everything up.

Slightly disappointed, she took off her hat and undid her bun, letting her pink hair slowly down her shoulders. It was an incredibly simple action yet that one action made people that were walking past suddenly stop as they saw that familiar long, pink hair.

She slightly grinned at that as Index started jumping up and down in enthusiasm as she slowly reached for her sunglasses and took them off, revealing the pink eyes that were underneath. People stopped just walking past as they froze as they saw the person that was the poster girl for the Endymion.

Those that saw her turned and walked towards her now, standing next to Index who managed to get the front row seat as Arisa placed her hands on the keyboard in front of her. The crowd slowly gathered in front of her as she took a deep breath, turning her lips into a smile as she put pressure on her fingers as they touched the keys.

It was this one pressure that started everything, had set her on this path and had carved her way forward. It had been what allowed her to be involved in so many wonderful things.

And to meet so many wonderful people.

And she used that pressure to play the first chord, starting the song that she had played when she had first met some of those very wonderful people in question.

Index's eyes went wide with happiness as she recalled the song in question as her own face broke into a grin upon hearing that very first chord, something that Arisa matched by looking straight at Index. Cameras flashed and recorded around her as she started that very first song of the mini-concert that she had begun.

And it began with the song she had played when she had first met Kamijou Touma and Index.

Gloria.

_The Pegasus shines in the sky afar (Pegasus toui sora)  
Reaching out to seize glory (Gloria todoku you ni)_

Still, as she played there was something that she could not shake. Her fingers were so used to the song that she was playing now that they seemed to move on their own yet at the same time, there was a strange loneliness to them. She knew the source of it, breaking her concentration slightly as she took the time to look around the place where Kamijou had set her up.

After all, almost as if in tribute to their meeting, she had played that song with the hope that he would hear it. She knew that Index would however what about the second party of the group that had taken her in and protected her?

Where was Kamijou Touma?

_Your footprints slowly disappeared in the long, long rain (Kimi no tsuketa ashiato ga nagai ame ni kieta yo)  
Your kindness and voice I've lost will remain in the sky as a star (Natsukashi koe yasashi-sa wa itsuka hoshi ni narudeshou)  
The time in the summer ticks with my heartbeat (Natsu wa isshun no kodou de toki o utsu)_

She continued despite her own thoughts as the crowd seemed to think that Arisa was looking around in order to bring the audience closer to her. After all, if it seemed as though Arisa was looking straight at them, it closed the distance between them that existed between 'idol' and 'observer'.

The supposedly unreachable idol would be looking straight at them, as equals and thus destroying the inferiority that they might have faced when they were in her presence. Simply looking straight at them had such an effect, causing more people to come closer and crowd around Arisa but that in turn troubled her.

While she did not want people to think that she was better than them and was happy that they were crowding around her, there was still one face that she was trying to distinguish in the crowd. She could not see it though as she continued regardless.

_Now, I am born (Watashi wa umareta)_

And there, in the distance.

She saw it.

The person that she had been searching for all this time.

_I'm a Pegasus (Pegasus)  
Passion appears as rings of light (Jounetsu wa hikaru ringu no you ni mieta)  
I rest all loneliness on the wings on my back (Sabishisa wa senaka (se na) no hane ni noseta)_

Her eyes caught his, although the male that was next to him thought that she was looking at him and blushed before moving to the crowd with his own phone open, probably to film her. In doing so, he pushed past the boy that Arisa had actually been looking at, roughly shoving him out of the way.

Kamijou Touma's eyes broke from the contact if only for a minute before he apologised to the other boy despite him not being at fault before returning the gaze with Arisa. In his hands was a shopping basket filled with a number of different ingredients that was probably for dinner tonight.

But even as Arisa was glad that the boy was in the distance, that distance between them was something that bothered her greatly.

_All the clouds reflux (Awadatsu kumo no reflux)  
The updraft is my blowhole (Joushou kiryuu no blowhole)_

Why was he so far away? Why was he not in the front of the crowd?

She realised that there were still things that he needed to do; he had said so himself. But the gap between the both of them seemed as though it was on purpose.

Almost as if he had put it between them for the sole purpose of making sure that they were not seen together or considered friends in any way.

_Here I come, diving into space (Meguri meguru uchuu ni dive)  
Now, I take flight (Ima o tobu yo)_

Kamijou though only nodded, smiling with a bright smile that made Meigo Arisa return it on instinct as the boy turned and went back to his shopping as if it were natural that they were supposed to be apart.

It stumped Arisa as to why he was acting like a stranger despite everything that they had been through as she turned back to face the crowd in front of her.

There was still a bit more to do in this concert of hers, but even so, lingering questions filled her mind.

_I take flight (Tobu yo)_

She continued to play the chords of the song but even so, those lingering questions continued. Although there might be a playful innocence about Kamijou, it still bothered Arisa that he was keeping his distance.

What was the reason for it?

Was there one?

Meigo Arisa did not know but as she entered the next verse, she promised herself that she would get those answers and reasons out of him no matter what.

* * *

The hardest part about being an idol for sure was that whenever she wanted to do her own thing, there were always people that wanted to stop her and ask for her autograph. It was surely Murphy's Law and Arisa did not mind it at all yet the lingering of unanswered questions at the back of her mind wished that all of this would disappear.

She had tried to push past all of her fans yet the underground 'concert' had attracted a lot of attention. Even Index had been smothered by the crowd as she tried to push through to where she had last seen Kamijou.

When she reached the convenience store though, the amount of fans increased, all of who showered her with questions such as 'Where are you staying', 'Can I have your autograph' and 'Can you kiss my baby', thrown at her from left and right. She turned her head at the last one; she wasn't exactly some kind of god, but she could hear the word 'miracle' being thrown around here and there.

It bothered her, to hear that word here. She had overcome her own fears and concerns about the word and how it was associated with her with the help of Kamijou himself but it still bothered her nonetheless. Yet there were more pressing issues at hand than just that.

She had to find Kamijou Touma and ask him why in the world he was so distant to her when she was performing. There was nothing wrong with him on the day that they had met, when they were strangers. So why was it different now, when they were no longer such?

Even though she got a good look inside the store, he wasn't there. Just like he had disappeared once more from her sight, he was gone and she couldn't find him. Surrounded by her fans, she should have naturally been happy but uneasiness came over her as she felt herself wondering where in the world the boy had gone.

This crowd though was hampering her chances of finding him though. She knew that they meant well but she had her own life to live as well, something that she wanted to get back to doing as soon as she dealt with everyone here.

She faced all of the people that had gathered around her and tried not to show those negative emotions within her on her face as she did her best to show a perfect smile. She could have sworn that she saw some of the boys blush at that but paid it no mind.

"Thank you everyone for supporting me! I hope that you'll come and see me again. Until Endymion!"

With that she spun around, weaving her way through the crowd that seemed to understand that that was her parting statement as she waved to the crowd behind her as some of them seemed disappointed that she had managed to escape from them.

She turned to face the front though, feeling a little bit guilty as she once more donned the sunglasses and put her hair in a bun as to make sure that no one that hadn't already recognised her did so. She moved through the crowd, once more a silent face. Where was Kamijou Touma? In fact, where was Index and Sphynx? She had lost all three in the crowd so where had they gone?

She stood up on a bench in order to try and find them, feeling her own heart race as she suddenly found herself alone. She had been so before, in fact she had spent three years without anyone by her side, alone given that she had lost her memories, yet now that there were people with her, that loneliness seemed to be a stake driven through her heart.

"Where are you Touma-kun? Index-chan?" she asked aloud, slightly in desperation. Was it possible that they had returned to where she had played before?

With that thought in mind, she moved from the chair and headed to that location, stopping in front of it and breathing a sigh of relief as she saw the people that were there.

Index was sitting on the bench near where she had performed, looking around and Kamijou was doing the same next to her. All of her equipment was already placed in bags as Kamijou blew on the wounds that he had gotten, once more probably from light electrocution from dealing with the equipment. Index turned her head and faced Arisa's direction, eyes lighting up as she stood up and raced to where she was.

Kamijou looked surprised at Index's actions yet understood them as he looked and saw Arisa in the distance. He waved, stood up and picked up the shopping that he had done which was next to him as he leaned against the wall where the equipment was.

"Ari – I-I mean you were great!" called Index as she reached for Arisa's hands, something that made Arisa smile as she slowly lowered her sunglasses now that she was with the people that she trusted.

"Thank you Index-chan. And I see that you already managed to put things away." said Arisa as she looked upwards to Kamijou. There was something that she had to discuss with him however she was unsure whether or not to discuss it in front of Index. It was her personal issue with the boy, meaning that it would be preferable if he was alone.

"Yep! Touma got sparked a few times but everything turned out fine! And, and we're having a special dinner tonight! Or at least that was what Touma said!" cried Index with glee as Sphynx meowed on her hood in order to establish his presence. Arisa smiled at them both before being led to her destination by Index.

"Touma! We can go now right?" asked Index to which Kamijou nodded.

"Unless there is something that you want to do beforehand. And your performance was lovely Arisa. I'm glad that I could be here to watch it. As unfortunately, this Kamijou-san was unable to buy the necessary tickets…" Kamijou complemented her before going into a slump as Arisa waved her hands in front of her face.

"N-Not at all. It's not your fault Touma-kun. You've couldn't have predicted that things would have turned out the way that they did!"

"….I kind of should."

"He's right Ari – I mean, he's right." said Index, once more trying to avoid using her name even though she had her sunglasses down slightly, showing her eyes. It was clear that Index was still trying to make sure that Arisa did not have her identity revealed publicly once more even though she had performed. "But that means that this might be the last time we see you perform before the big concert!"

"I'm sure that things will work out. After all, I get the feeling as though the CD that is coming with the opening ceremony will land me the chance to get a big record deal." said Arisa, hopeful for her dreams and speaking optimistically.

"Really?" asked Kamijou, obviously impressed. "Then you never know, this might be the only chance that you get for a while that you can relax. You want to get some kind of afternoon meal to fill you until dinner?" His question, although kind left Arisa rather curious as to what he implied.

"What do you mean 'for a while'? The record deal is not set in stone Touma-kun."

"Well yes, but even so the aftermath of the opening ceremony means that things might be a bit hectic for you. I think that you'll be busy in some fashion or form meaning that you won't come over for a while. My door is always open for you but right now, you don't have a place to stay. That might change after the opening ceremony though…" remarked Kamijou, leaving Arisa somewhat stunned.

While it was possible that she would be busy with the Endymion preparations and the like after the opening ceremony, she hadn't really thought that far into the future. Surely, there would be conferences and press events that she would have to attend meaning that she might have to pull a few all-nighters doing nothing but work. If that was the case, then as Kamijou had said, was it possible that this was the last time they might be able to hang out for a while?

And even then, he said that his door was always open for her. It was as if he only saw her as a normal girl rather than an idol. It was a relaxing stance to view her in, something that Arisa did not mind but at the same time, it only made the distance that he showed beforehand all the more mysterious.

Why had he been so distant?

Why was it the case, when he could speak to her in a normal way that suggested that he didn't care about her position as an idol?

Those questions filled her mind but she managed to crack a smile and let loose a small chuckle.

"It's like you're my manager Touma-kun."

"I'm not paid enough for that." He responded immediately. "But, as your so-called 'manager' it is the obligation of this Kamijou-san to get you something that you want as an afternoon meal! So, where do you want to go? I'll get you any one item." He said, addressing both Index and Arisa as the former responded.

"Then I want to go over there! Those ice creams are said to be made with genetically enhanced dairy products from special milk but I don't care! As long as it's food and tasty, I'm fine with everything over there!"

"I said only one item! One. And that doesn't mean you can use the loophole of buying the same thing numerous times!" Kamijou replied in desperation as he felt his wallet cry a bit as Index raced over to the ice cream cart in the distance.

Kamijou sighed as she did so, looking at everything that he had to carry as Arisa came over and started to reach for the strap of her own piano.

"Huh? Ah, no Arisa. I can't let you do that. Let me." Kamijou reached out as he tried to pull the piano strap out of her hand yet meaning that his hand and her hand touched lightly. Arisa pulled back at the contact with a slightly red face, realising that it was a stupid thing to get embarrassed about as Kamijou blinked as he looked at her.

"Sorry, it's just that-"

"I-It's fine. L-Let me at least carry the shopping bags will you?" asked Arisa as she started for them, carrying them in her hands as it was clear that she wasn't going to take no for an answer.

It seemed as though there were a number of things that Kamijou wanted to say in making a girl do the manual labour but it was clear that Arisa wasn't going to back down. He sighed and scratched the back of his head in response before nodding.

"It would be a big help." That was all he said as he grunted, lifting the piano and other sound equipment that Arisa had used. She did the same with the bags, finding them a little bit light given that she had always carried her equipment as the two of them set off to follow Index who had reached the stand.

It was while they were walking that Meigo Arisa suddenly found herself with the perfect opportunity that she had been waiting for. It was this moment where Index was off in the distance and she was next to the boy that she had the perfect chance to interrogate him about the problem that she had had with him.

She turned to face him, Kamijou realising that she was looking at him before he stared at her. She had an unusual expression in her eyes, like she had found an obstacle she had to climb yet was unsure about how to do it.

"Is something the matter?" he asked to which Arisa was silent for a moment before speaking.

"Touma-kun, did you enjoy my singing?" she asked. The suddenness of the question threw Kamijou back slightly, surprising him.

"What are you saying Arisa? I said that I did and I meant it!" Kamijou seemed to go on the defensive as if Arisa did not believe him however she did not pay it any mind, turning to Kamijou with a hurt expression that shocked him even more than the question that she had posed beforehand.

"Then why were you so distant before? Was there something wrong?" Arisa asked that question, leaving Kamijou blinking in surprise. He opened his mouth as if to say something but then closed it, sighing and rubbing the back of his head or at least trying to with the equipment that he had in his hands.

"I waved to you so I thought that everything was OK but…."

"Touma-kun. Were you keeping your distance…because of me? If, in any way at all, I'm being a bother then I want you to know that I want to make sure that I don't incon-"

"You're not being a bother." Kamijou said that rather readily and without raising his voice. Doing so made it seem as though it wasn't forced but merely an established fact that had been in place since the Big Bang. Arisa blinked at that as Kamijou frowned as he tried to think about what to say.

"Is…there something wrong with me? Was that why you were keeping your distance?" asked Arisa, noting the nervousness of her own voice and the fact that she was feeling rather anxious right now. She wanted to know the answer sure, but what did that mean for her? She didn't know but the fact that she had to know the answer only scared her.

What type of answer was she looking for right now anyway?

Was there one that would satisfy her?

She felt as though Kamijou wouldn't lie to her. After all, she was clearly distressed and doing so to relieve her feelings was something that he wouldn't do because should Arisa learn the truth then it would only make her stressed out even more. But even so, it seemed as though Kamijou was rather reluctant to say what was on his mind.

There was a slight pause as Kamijou turned to her, seeing in his eyes something that she hadn't seen before.

It was resignation, as if he had given up a point, merely accepting it because he knew that there wasn't anything that he could do to change it.

"Arisa, I'm a person that is full of misfortune."

Arisa seemed rather surprised at the way that he said it. She knew that this was the case; after all she had lived with him for a few days so it was sort of hard not to notice. But the way that he said it right now was filled with a solemn tone, as if he was looking down on himself for it.

"There's nothing wrong with you Arisa. But you chose a place that I visit quite often. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that and I'm all for you trying to calm yourself by sticking to your own routine but in this underground mall, there are places that I pass where I'm pretty well known."

"Because….of your misfortune?" asked Arisa.

"Partially. There are some restaurants that know me as one of their most well paying customers, but that's only happened because of that nun over there. But yes, most shops know me for my misfortune. Clothing shops know me for changing curtains falling down, electronics shops know me for electronics breaking and the ATMs and banks know me for getting my card stuck. You get the overall gist right?"

Arisa nodded slowly. While what he was saying was rather amusing looking at it as a whole, there was something else there. Kamijou said those things without emotion, as if he had merely gotten used to it. It was similar to him saying 'I have to go to school'. His misfortune was merely part of his routine and he had come to accept it without hating it or loving it with any particular force. It was just merely 'there' and there was nothing he could do about it.

But his voice seemed to gain that emotion near the end of what he was saying meaning that Arisa felt that the point he was reaching was coming soon.

"But that means that sometimes people and places here and near other places that I visit often get wary of those that are around me. Index and I come down here a lot and there are some places that we avoid because of…certain things that have happened there. But I guess the both of us know that the moment we walk into those shops anyway, we'll get thrown out." Kamijou explained as he looked to the side of where they were walking and pointed to it.

Arisa looked over, seeing that there were a set of benches near the ice cream stand where Index was still choosing as they both sat down and Kamijou explained as they put their things down.

"But do you understand what I'm getting at?" he asked to which Arisa shook her head.

Kamijou explained it to her then in black and white.

"Simply by being with me, people might start to think that you're filled with misfortune as well. You might be banned from places merely because those places think that because you are with me, I rubbed some misfortune off on you. People might avoid you as well. Someone that wants to be an idol and live their life as one…can't be surrounded with superstitious thoughts like that. It might not happen but it could, it definitely has with Index before but she thinks I haven't noticed. It's not major and usually only affects the minority but…"

Kamijou smiled at her, something that she felt was aimed to reassure her but only placed a weight on her heart.

"That's why I stayed away. I didn't want people to associate 'you with 'me and 'misfortune'. Doing so might affect your dream in a small way and there's no way that I can stand that after all of the effort that you are putting in."

Arisa felt herself go cold at those words.

In this City of Science, there was something wrong with those words. Superstition? Luck? Those were words that one would never find being thrown about, even though District 12 had a number of theology system schools but even then, religion was studied using a scientific standpoint.

Yet there was somehow a truth behind it. Arisa herself felt herself lucky but from a scientific standpoint, that thought was something she knew to be nothing more than her own casual interpretation of it. But seeing Kamijou Touma and the things that happened to him, she somehow found herself believing in things like 'bad luck' and 'misfortune' especially.

But was it only her? What if others were affected and let those thoughts overtake them and drive their rationale?

Doing so was unfair to the boy but it seemed as though he had gotten used to it, to the extent that Arisa wanted to shout at him that he should at least complain in some way. But there was something else that bothered her despite that.

It was the fact that Kamijou was willing to throw himself away just for her sake. It wasn't that he saw her as an idol. He saw her as a girl that truly dreamed to achieve something. He had protected her from things that had threatened that dream but, in a cruel irony, he felt as though he was one of those things.

Being seen together in public might make those people that believed in bad luck think that Arisa had that same luck. Would it affect her dream in any way? It might, it might not. But Kamijou wanted to turn that possibility into a zero by staying away from her when she was showing herself off. He hadn't done so beforehand when they had just met because they weren't overly familiar.

But what about now?

He was carrying her stuff, setting it up and putting it away and now the two of them, with Index were out buying some food. They were no longer strangers in Arisa's mind and she was sure that that was something that would be reflected in the minds of others as well.

And as a result of that, Kamijou needed to keep his distance in order to do one thing.

To protect Meigo Arisa.

From himself.

He was treading on his own name, throwing himself in the mud with a lack of self-worth that only made Arisa want to embrace him and tell him that everything was alright. It was entirely unfair to him but he treated it as normal. While it might be (in the sense that he had accepted his misfortune as his life sucking in aspects), there was something that Arisa felt that she truly feared.

It was as though he was drifting away.

He would always accept her for what she was. It was a wondrous part of him that she hoped would never change but he would need to keep his distance in public in order to not step on her dream that might be threatened because of him.

But there was an increasing distance between the two of them, as if the boy were drifting away into the distance. As Arisa achieved her dream and got closer and closer to becoming a celebrity in the eyes of many, something that she definitely was working to, would she even be able to meet with Kamijou Touma anymore?

In order to protect her from misfortune, he might keep his distance entirely; doing so in an effort to make sure that Meigo Arisa's name was never trampled on or associated with 'misfortune'.

It was an extreme case but given what she had just heard, she could not discount the possibility that if she achieved her dream, she would lose contact with the boy entirely as he cast himself aside to ensure that Arisa didn't get associated with misfortune.

He would throw away his own smile to make Arisa the happiest person he could.

But…the wrench that was inserted into Arisa's heart made her tremble as she grabbed at the boy's hands.

"Touma-kun….I…That isn't what I want." Her voice was barely a whisper as Kamijou slightly pulled away at her touch, whether out of embarrassment or the fact that they were gaining attention.

"Maybe that's true. But I don't want to be the thing that ruins your dr-"

"That isn't what I want!"

Arisa suddenly shouted, surprising the boy and making people stare in surprise. Even Index looked over at the two of them in surprise, looking at Kamijou who seemed to indicate with his eyes that this was something that he would deal with. Index responded by merely turning back to the ice cream cart, trusting the boy but keeping an eye open, watching the two of them in the reflective glass of the ice cream cart. People hurried along, not wanting to be a part of whatever was happening.

"Touma-kun, what I want….if my dream means that I have to throw you away, then I won't do it! I can't cast you aside after everything that you've done for me!"

Kamijou blinked in response, looking at her with an almost stunned look before trying to form words with his mouth.

"Arisa, you're the one that has worked hard to reach this stage. I told you before that as a Level 0, I see you as an inspiration! I can't have you throw everything away for a misfortunate loser like me, with no academic ability or special talent that only I possess. Doing so would be stepping on your name in the worst way possible."

"But what about yours?"

"Mine?"

"Your name! Yes, you're everything that you say you are, but Touma-kun, you are the one that took me in! You are the one that's done so much for me! I won't let you drift away because of what other people think and I'm not going to give up my dream either! I want to accomplish my dream, but I want you to be the first person that sees me after I do it. You and Index-chan both!"

Kamijou frowned as Arisa suddenly gripped both of his hands, leaning in closer towards him as she shifted closer to him.

"I want to sing to a large crowd and then when I go back stage, I want to see you there, smiling back in the way that you do, telling me that I was good! I don't want to see you doing it over the phone or through mail. I want it to be from you and you alone, no matter what other people say about you. And the same goes for Index-chan as well! I can't throw you both away to achieve my dream!"

"But Arisa-"

"I know what you want to say. I know that people might think that your misfortune has rubbed off on me. But….but what about it? The past few days have been the best for me! Performing, being with you and Index-chan, there's nothing that I regret! And if you think that your bad luck will bring misfortune, then…..then I only have to rely on the miracle that my singing brings to counter it."

Kamijou seemed rather taken aback at what Arisa suddenly declared as she steeled herself, forming a desire within her heart and carving it into her soul as she once more made that declaration.

"I will use the extreme amount of good luck I can create and create enough of a miracle to counter your bad luck. And I will use my singing to do it. So, I say this to you Touma-kun. So that I can ensure that no one thinks that your bad luck will rub off on me, I need you to always be there when I sing. So that you can experience the miracles that I bring."

Arisa realised that she might be thought of as selfish for her request. After all, this was nothing more than her expressing a selfish wish to the boy in the hopes that the kindness in his heart would mean that he would answer. Yet she did not let go of his hands as she looked straight in his eyes.

"Because I want you to be there Touma-kun. I don't want you to think that I don't need you. Because I do. So please, I don't care about misfortune or anything like that. I only care that you are with me. Can….can you please stay with me?"

Arisa's voice was soft as she turned her gaze down, Kamijou trying to think of something to say right now given the desperate expression that she was making. Numerous things crossed his mind but only one thing came out when he actually opened his mouth.

"If that's what you want, Arisa. I'd….be honoured to stay with you. And wherever you are and whatever you sing, I'll always be there, listening. I look forward to the next miracle."

Kamijou smiled and Arisa somehow felt as though it changed somehow. Instead of the resigned smile that he had made earlier, there was something like true happiness behind it. Almost as if since Arisa had said that she would accept Kamijou for what he was, then he had the right to stay with her.

That he was happy to be by her side. That by her accepting him, he could stand by her side and support her as he wanted to, instead of in the shadows, slowly drifting away.

It pained Arisa to see Kamijou think of himself and his misfortune like that. And it pained her that he felt he had to distance himself from Arisa because her dream was in such close grasp that even the slightest change could lead to disaster.

But even despite those thoughts, the boy smiled. Arisa had felt as though the distance between them had grown as she advanced but that smile seemed to close the gap in an instant. They were together and by the other's side, ready to support the other when it was needed.

And in response to Kamijou Touma's wish, Arisa could only return that smile with her own, the same smile that had used to make that stranger boy beforehand who had been next to Kamijou blush. But this time she directed it straight to her target, as she spoke.

"You better Touma-kun. Because the next time I sing, I want to make sure that everyone can hear it. And then surely the miracle that you want will appear."

Kamijou nodded, turning and noting that Index was approaching as he looked at her. He didn't wave or anything, something that was attributed to the fact that his hands were currently trapped by Arisa.

She had grabbed them without thinking but now that she looked at the situation, it was something that was rather embarrassing. But Kamijou hadn't made a note of it meaning that Arisa had all of the time in the world to hold those hands.

He might have been distant before but it was with good intentions, to help Meigo Arisa achieve her dream. It felt like he was fading away but with that tight grip, Arisa had managed to hold onto the person that had made her feel more special than she thought possible.

Not as the idol Meigo Arisa.

But rather, the girl Meigo Arisa.

She didn't want to lose the person that made feel that, so she was determined to hold on for as long as she could. But now that she considered it and had managed to prevent Kamijou from drifting away, she truly felt herself lost in the warmth of his hands.

Those hands ready to grab Arisa when she fell and push her forward when she stumbled.

Those strong hands that could only contain warmth particular to him.

She let go of one hand and waved to Index who had been hesitant to approach because of the shout that Arisa had made beforehand. Index's face seemed to lighten up as she approached Kamijou and Arisa, having chosen what she wanted and wanting Kamijou to pay but never noticed one thing.

And that was that Arisa had only let go of one hand.

The other was still placed on Kamijou's right hand where he sat. It seemed as though Kamijou thought that Arisa wanted to keep that hand there because it served to remind him that she wanted him by her side so he didn't seem to mind. And that in itself was more than enough of a miracle for that girl.

In order to ensure that he did not drift off and that he would stay by her side, she needed to hold onto that hand for as long as she could. And for her right now, the warmth and reassurance that came from it gave her the strength needed to face the next day.

Miracles came in different sizes and forms. The one that Meigo Arisa was going to give to Kamijou Touma was a song that would surely allow him to stay by her side regardless of what he felt about her dream and the possible rubbing off of misfortune.

But without knowing it, the joining of hands that was between the boy and girl that closed the distance between them to zero was enough of a miracle for her.

And the only thing that Meigo Arisa wanted to do was to make that miracle last as long as she could with a bright smile on her face.

* * *

**And this is the end!**

**Looking at the end scene, I hope that this was as fluffy as a soft pillow and you just laid down in it and enjoyed it for the most part.**

**As you can see, I really like Arisa. And I hope that you did too after this chapter. Again, this chapter was more focused on perhaps Touma's personal limiter on his relationships and how that would affect Arisa. While he wants to help everyone and push everyone forward to achieve their goals, I think that he would step back at the last minute not out of fear or cowardice but to allow that person to achieve that last, most important step themselves. In this sense, making people reliant on themselves rather than him is an important part of his character.**

**For Arisa then, who was extremely close to her goal, this step back was more out of kindness in order to make sure that he didn't get in her way as she carved her own path. But in doing so, he stepped on his own life which was something that Arisa couldn't accept. She is someone that only wanted to return once more to that 'dorm room' which became her home without losing anything.**

**Touma stepping back then likely crushed what she wanted at the very end of the day. It might have been interesting what would have happened to Arisa if she hadn't merged with Shutaura. Would she have returned and been another freeloader? Or would she have become a full-fledged idol, scouring the world as creating a bunch of fans while at the same time remembering the boy and girl in that dorm room she called home.**

**Still, Touma stepping back here because of how he considers his misfortune affecting her is both his kindness and his pain. In the end, the one thing that Touma can never be saved from is his misfortune and although he feels that it makes him lucky in the sense that he can sense other people's pain, it is his own pain that is always pushed to the side. Looking at it like that, however Touma is unbelievably selfless in that respect makes me like him as a character even more as well as Arisa as I wrote her for wanting to accept that anyway (but then again, it makes me enjoy all the other characters that have accepted Touma because of such as well!).**

**Hopefully Arisa wasn't out of character for you guys in this respect!**

**Also with the lyrics, I only hoped that you imaged the actual song in your head as she was playing and looking for Touma. It's an upbeat song however I felt as though it fit strangely well with her Arisa's own worried thoughts.**

**But for the resolution at the end, Arisa resolved in a way to sing for Touma so he could stay with her and overcome the problem of misfortune. If you think of it like that, it becomes a bit fluffier don't you think?**

**And as always,  
Review if you please.**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**I think I enjoyed writing the last bit a bit too much. The ways that their hands were locked together…even though Arisa raised a number of death flags here, I hope that you can imagine that scene in your mind and smile at it. I certainly did.**


	29. The One Who Came Up Short

**Request time!**

**I've run out of things to say in the beginning now and I think that's a good thing (or is it? Maybe we'll see as time goes on!). As things have progressed, as you can see I changed the 'titular character' for each new chapter to sort of give you an hint of what is to follow but the fact that I don't elaborate until here I think aims to bring you in. Haas it worked? But as they say; on with the show!**

**Today's request comes from Takuz who asked:**

A nice OTP chapter... You express nice interaction between those two and it pretty amusing too. I wish you can make Chapter about Chibi Othinus :D

**And your wish has been heard loud and clear….whoops wrong God and series. Well whatever, the point still stands.**

**So here we go with this chapter that I hope you will enjoy. But here we are with the usual Q &amp; A:**

**whwsms: Well I think the point of the last chapter was to show that Touma does downplay himself when it comes to others because of his misfortune so having someone overcome that at the very end such as the duo of Othinus and Arisa might be interesting to see what his standpoint will be then. However somehow I feel as though even if Touma were to be freed from his misfortune, he would still want to seek out those that are hurting so he can save them. Still, the idea of a Touma without 'misfortune' is interesting although as a result, you'd probably have to forgo the harem antics. IT'S A HORRIBLE TRADE-OFF!**

**But still, I don't think that having another girl or Tsuchimikado pop up would add anything to the last scene with Touma and Arisa, mainly because it would turn something nice where Arisa is trying to convey that she wants Touma to think about himself rather than others for once and what others think about him and his standpoint into something that will only cause him some pain. I hope you can see that though; in a way having either of them show up would 'ruin the moment' as it were. But as a whole, it might have been amusing to consider at the same time.**

**pop2ww: Again, as I noted with whwsms while the thought of having Tsuchimikado recording the last scene with Arisa and Touma would be amusing as well as if he sent it to others, I think that doing so would 'ruin the moment' and the message that Arisa was trying to get across to Touma. But again I do feel as though you once again nailed what Touma's character is there in that he doesn't want to 'give a push' at the end but rather allow one to 'stand' and take that step to their end goal themselves. As a result though, Touma essentially casts himself away and refuses to be happy with them so having Arisa act as the 'broker' who states that she also wants Touma to be happy is also important.**

**Arisa though as a character is too cute and ideal as a WAIFU! Maybe my own love for her character (she really was outstanding – no hitting Touma when he stuffed up and just plain doing things an average person would do) resulted in the husband-wife feel at the end of last chapter but I seriously love Arisa as a character. Even with glasses! Thank you Kamachi! And I wouldn't mind having Arisa as a freeloader if Arisa and Shutaura unmerged. But that's my own personal taste.**

**Before we get into the usual 'what does this character look like' I haven't considered a spinoff A Certain Known Level 0 because the title of ACUL0 is meaningful in the sense that the story is about discovery of Touma and who he is even though it sort of exploded into a battle/action/harem/magic vs. science/discovery story. Thus I haven't really considered a spinoff because of the point I'm trying to get across. That and the title becomes REALLY important in the LAST arc of that story. But now I'll get to that 'what the characters look like' bit here for the magician introduced in Accelerator's arc with his partner covered next chapter of BTL (I'll deal with the OCs on an arc-by-arc basis).**

**Travis Sibley: This guy had an appearance similar to Tyki Mikk's human form in D. Gray Man. While he is more aloof in that media, Travis had a more serious character; something like Kiritsugu's clothes and cynical nature from Fate/Zero put into the figure of Tyki. His clothes were more to represent the fact he could 'blend' in if anything which was perfect as his assassin role but by having him appear like Tyki I bridged the gap between the usual 'kid vs. kid' structure of Index and had Touma face an adult magician. I've diverged for that for now but I wanted Travis back then to establish just how removed the Magic side (or Science?) was from Science by having him appear more adult. Overall though, imagine Tyki's human form wearing a ripped trench coat yet casual clothes, being a bit serious.**

**Guest: I think I am the first to sort of ship Arisa and Touma in a fanfiction here. (Not too sure though). I guess I can call that one then right!? I just feel as though the two of them really meld well together in their chemistry so I hope that I made their interactions good.**

**Agent Nine: I'm glad that you enjoyed it! I wanted to display a different side of the 'battle' Touma that we usually know and look at more his stance of misfortune clashing with his own want to support another but I'm glad that it turned out well and you liked it! I hope more of my chapters emphasise that second side of him; more than just the hero that charges into everything but also the hero that support everyone with kindness, even if he has to cast aside his own smile.**

**wildarms13: Thank you for your kind words and I find it funny how my works here might seem to be thought of as 'canon'. And join the club fellow Arisa shipper. The chapter was extremely fluffy wasn't it?**

**Anon: ….I'm really eager to do a Shutaura chapter now….**

**Ren: I'm glad for those kind words of yours and thank you for taking the time to review when you are usually a silent reader! A villain Touma seems like a good idea but I'll see what I can do. I have around up to Chapter 60 of this in draft, with a mix of original and request projects so you'll have to wait a while if I get up to the chapter that you want. Sorry.**

**Cobra Hound: I have an IDEA for a Cendrillon chapter at the moment but what I do with it, I have no idea. I've got it down in draft if it's any conciliation but it'll be a while before the idea is cemented and I post it.**

**And before we continue, I'd like to thank the usual 2 and the extra person to thank.**

**Of course, PokeRescue18. My beta, friend and comrade in arms, I'm sure that we have been through some tough times together and I hope that you can continue to work with me here in the future as long as you can. May you live long and prosper because of my thanks (wrong series again!).**

**To you as well the reader. Seriously, without you, things would never have gotten as smoothly as they would have now. I seriously want to thank you for your work here by reading and I hope I can continue to grasp you as the time comes. Your support really drives me, as you can tell that this series is updated more than my Pokémon one…**

**And to you Takuz. I want to thank you for your request and I hope that I fulfilled it to the best of my ability.**

**AND GREAT NEWS! NT 16 HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED FOR AUGUST! The preview for now seems like true bait however I truly look forward to seeing Touma, Mikoto and Misaki (if she does indeed appear physically instead) in their swimsuits and the chaos that surrounds Tokiwadai if indeed that is the full novel. I wonder if this time, that is going to be the broken sanctuary? **

**And for everyone out there that usually fits into the second category of people to thank:**

**Enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

This Is No Place for a God. _A_Towering_World_Filled_With_Giants._

Blasphemy.

As a whole, it was basically the act of insulting or completely showing disrespect for a God or Gods. Many people did it daily without realising it; if the Ten Commandments were to be taken literally then the phrase 'Oh My God' or saying 'Jesus' in surprise or alarm was considered blasphemy. After all, the Third Commandment stated that 'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain'. **[1]**

While for religions where there was one God, monotheism, blasphemy was more clear cut the line was somewhat blurred for religions where there were many gods, polytheism. After all, if one god was blasphemed against, how did that affect the other gods?

Insulting one's father did not upset the mother. Like in a similar manner, the amount of punishment was determined by whom in the 'chain of hierarchy' one insulted. If it was a minor god, the punishment was minor while on the other hand, if it was a major god then the punishment was major.

In this fashion though, the only word that Othinus could think of in this situation was demeaning.

That and as the head god of Norse mythology, she wanted to have all of the perpetrators beheaded with their bodies impaled on sticks in order to serve as an example for those that chose to do the same blasphemous acts again. Such punishment was fitting for blasphemy against the head god indeed.

But there was nothing that she could do in this state.

And that would have to be the fact that she was currently 15 centimetres tall. Using a conversion rate, she figured it was around 6 inches tall, or just a bit smaller but the reason for her current size was not in her control.

Being near the end of November right about now, the chaos that had erupted within Denmark a few days ago had died down completely. News reports were the only thing that remained and the two people that had served at the centre of the chaos were currently in Academy City. Or more accurately, there were in a District 7 hospital run by a certain frog-faced doctor.

One person, the one that had done all of the work and the person that Othinus owed her life to right now was currently wondering about outside. His rehabilitation was going well after everything that he had experienced, his right arm in a sling and moving about with recovering strength even though he had stupidly taken it off earlier yesterday for some reason, which she and Index had lectured him about.

Kamijou Touma passed everything off with a smile and the two of them had had frequent conversations together about the future for them both. As it was basically determined that Kamijou was to be her warden and her, the prisoner, it seemed as though they were going to have to get along together, something that they now did perfectly.

It was only natural given that the other was their Understander.

It seemed as though the basic plan was as follows: after he got out, he would head back to his student dorm and then live out his normal life. There was nothing abnormal about that but at the same time, it hammered into Othinus just what her punishment was, given her current state.

She was made to watch and experience that world, that normal life that Kamijou Touma was to live.

She had to face the world that she wanted to run away from by committing suicide in thinking that she didn't deserve to be saved. It was almost ironic but by being saved she was made to endure the most horrible punishment that could have been given to her. And that was to watch the happy world continue even though she had been once viewed as the villain.

The punishment, something that would never be known by those prattling mortals was something similar to what she had placed on someone else, in something that could be called the Omega World. It had truly been a hell that had almost made Kamijou Touma break yet here they were, with Kamijou victorious over the Magic God.

Or what was left of her.

The 1% remains of her crumbling body had reformed, giving her this appearance that she was to conduct her punishment in. Being 15 centimetres might have been a godsend, just in the fact that she was alive but even so, she was having a hard time believing it had happened. She was dying yet she had been saved by something.

Whatever her thoughts were on the matter though, she had to get used to being in this form and the situation at hand. Besides, with the human there to support her, it couldn't be all that bad which perhaps was the only saving thought. But that had hardly been easy, even with his support.

While Kamijou himself was having a sort of rehabilitation, it was something that was mirrored by Othinus as she got used to her new body. It had a function that was exactly the same as her previous, only a scale smaller.

Things that that idiotic human had pointed out, only to be punched by Othinus and lightly bitten by Index to prevent his wounds from opening also had to be addressed. Things like going to the bathroom, eating and changing clothes (although she only needed to wash the current ones that she had) were things that she had to get used to.

But the biggest change that Othinus had realised during her rehabilitation was probably the fact that she felt like she was in Australia. This was because of the fact that, given the goings-on in Australia, suddenly everything was out to kill her.

People's feet as they walked without noticing her in the hospital almost trampled on her. She had almost drowned in a bag of donated blood. Falling down the stairs was a feat that almost killed her. Surgery stretchers that were wheeled down hallways with frightening speed almost caused her body to be crushed like in a car accident. Missing elevator doors almost threatened to crush her body in two. Falling items that probably weighed no more than two kilograms caused her to flee for fear of being squashed. Almost being sucked down the toilet made her almost become an urban legend in and of itself.

Although she was reminded of the hells that she had put Kamijou Touma though as a result of these threats, something where he had in fact been trampled, drowned, crushed, hit by a car, sliced in two, squashed and eaten by alligators in a sewer instead of avoiding the threat, there was one thing that Othinus felt that she had to endure that the boy was lucky she had neglected to put him through.

And that was that Othinus-damn cat.

The monstrous being that threatened her very existence. The creature of divine proportions that caused her, a former war god to tremble in fear. The retribution of the world given physical form.

Yes…that calico cat called Sphynx.

That airheaded Index Librorum Prohibitorum failed to keep an eye on the monster meaning that most (well, thinking about it properly it was probably all) of the exercise Othinus had been receiving recently was running away from said cat.

Running away to prevent it catching her and licking her face.

Running away to prevent it catching her and playing with her cape like it was some kind of ball of yarn.

Running away to prevent it catching her and batting at her with its paws in order to beat her into submission.

Running away to prevent it catching her and, worst of all, put her in its mouth before bounding through the hospital and showing off its catch to everyone it could see.

That…. _demon _was something that she had to avoid at all costs. While the rest of the hospital staff just saw her as a rather scantily dressed doll that had gyro functions and an autonomous control program meaning she could move around on her own, she was a living breathing being! Why was she made to endure this hell?

She realised she had no right to say that after putting Kamijou through hundreds of billions of hells but still! There was a limit to the things that could be done!

Today, she had once more run away from that dangerous beast from hell that rivalled Cerberus and had managed to hide herself in one of the recovery sections of the hospital meant for small children.

And now that the lengthy exposition was over, it's time to return to the story. You might have forgotten but this is the situation little Othi-chan has found herself in~!

In this fashion though, the only word that Othinus could think of in this situation was demeaning.

That and as the head god of Norse mythology, she wanted to have all of the perpetrators beheaded with their bodies impaled on sticks in order to serve as an example for those that chose to do the same blasphemous acts again. Such punishment was fitting for blasphemy against the head god indeed.

The situation she was in was simple.

"Throw her to me! I want to play with her next!"

"No, me! I want to- What is this doll wearing!? I-Is this even allowed in the hospital!?"

"Give it back! I was playing with it first!"

Othinus was thrown through the air in her 15 cm form as she rotated vigorously; trying her best not to scream out given the fact that she had been thrown rather hard.

This was the blasphemy that she felt that she had to punish the perpetrators for.

While she hadn't realised it when she had hidden within the recovery ward for small children, it was currently time for them to have their own rehabilitation. This naturally meant relaxing in an environment where they could truly let off some steam.

Thus, the hospital had kindly made an indoor playground that also connected to the outside for those small children and their therapy after surgery and other hospitalisation reasons. And unfortunately, it was here that Othinus had managed to hide herself when Sphynx had been seeking her out.

And it was at the exact time when the children had been sent here for their rehabilitation.

She had been found quickly, much to the surprise of one of the little girls that claimed in glee that she had found a small doll. Othinus, in the hopes that acting in a stiff way would mean that the girl's boredom would run out rather quickly with her, played the part of the doll and did nothing, making no expression.

But then, the assholes had come along.

That was right, the other little freaks that had crowded around the girl upon her remark "But why isn't she wearing much?". The boys that had come over, perverted little bastards, had immediately risen their heads. As least the human had the sense to point it out to her despite the fact that she had punched him for it.

She wasn't self-conscious of the fact that she wasn't wearing much. She was a god after all. But even then, having people crowd around her and ogle her without making proper offerings only pissed her off. At least that human understood what her position was, even if it was former!

Without voicing those thoughts, Othinus had said nothing, maintaining the still posture in the hopes that the children would get bored with her and that she would still be able to hide here from Sphynx.

But then one of those little male freaks had stolen her from the girl, gripping rather tightly and had started throwing her around to his friends. This was the core of the blasphemous acts and the demeaning situation that Othinus found herself in. Why was she subject to this sort of thing? If these tiny brained monkeys had _any _understanding of what she was-

Othinus was caught roughly and felt a sweaty palm clasp around her waist. She let out a pained gasp but it was hardly heard as the boy that had caught her grinned.

"Let's see what…..! Th-This doll! What is it wearing?! Next to nothing! I-Is this one of those 'exhibitionists' that the nurse was telling me about?"

Othinus twitched and withheld her thoughts, voicing them internally as she thought what she wanted to say.

(You stupid being. If you think for a moment that I even remotely recognise you as part of the food chain, then you've got another thing coming! You are lower than plankton and other unicellular organisms you little freak!)

"Should I lift it up? I….I mean this _is _a doll right? The clothes can be changed right so it's OK to lift it up right?"

The boy holding her asked that question while pointing to one of the pieces of cloth that were covering her breasts. Othinus maintained a neutral expression however her own thoughts exploded into a deluge of profanities.

(YOU STUPID BEING! You are lower than plankton. You're the fungus that gets stuck in between one's toes that nobody wants. A disease that no one wants or desires so if you understand that, GET YOUR HANDS AWAY FROM THAT PIECE OF CLOTH! I mean it. I MEAN IT!)

Othinus raged internally however she was suddenly snatched away by a different person, the girl that had found her in the first place. She was pressed against the girl tightly, feeling herself being smothered into her hospital gown. She struggled to breath but still heard voices from the girl.

"Leave Yui-chan alone! She's playing with me!"

(Yui? Who in Othinus's name is that? Don't go deciding my name without my permission you pitiful excuse for a girl. When I was your age, a long time ago, I was fighting for my life learning magic and what do you have? An esper ability, so you should bow down to me, bow down-)

"Come on Yui-chan. Let's go to the tea party that we were going to have for you. It's your birthday after all and although we put a candle in your eye, we'll still make it the best day ever!"

(You put a WHAT in my eye?! Don't go thinking up random reasons for my eyepatch! I am a god! I hung myself and ripped my eye out to gain that power so don't think that I put a candle in there! And what kind of idiotic person gets a candle stuck in their eye!?)

The girl, with Othinus still pressed up against her chest made her way to a corner of the indoor playground as she sat down. She pulled Othinus from her protective chest and turned her around, making her face where she was right now. And now that her expression couldn't be seen, Othinus's expression changed into one of horror.

She was….in front of a doll's house.

This girl…couldn't be thinking….couldn't be suggesting….

(I always found it annoying but now I can see how that catchphrase of yours is relevant now human! Such misfortune!)

Othinus stole something that wasn't hers to steal as the girl reached over and took something from inside the doll's house. She pulled it out and Othinus felt a tear come to her one eye as she saw what it was as the girl gripped Othinus by the side and turned her around rather roughly.

She felt as though she would get carpet burn on her petite (and in her opinion perfect) butt and she changed her expression back to what it had been although with a hint of desperation for the reality in front of her to not be true.

"Yui-chan, we're going to be wearing this for your birthday!"

The frilly dress, white with blue frills seemed oddly cute and for a taller doll but Othinus still felt as though it was just as horrible nonetheless. The colours and fabric; what kind of offering was this!? It was less than that of a child of a peasant and Othinus was going to have none of it.

If she had chosen, she would have fled right there on the spot. However, her rational mind told her that given the relatively short attention span of children, this hell was going to be short lived. Horrible but short lived. So as long as she endured and held her voice within her mouth then eventually this irritable little girl would leave her alone and she could escape from here and find a better place to hide from Sphynx.

But that didn't mean that she felt nothing right now.

(Don't you dare come at me with that dress! OK, as you are now doing that don't you dare think of raising my arms above my head to put it on! OK, as you are now doing _that _don't you dare think of placing it over this sensual body of mine! …..OK, you've done that. I'm killing you. The moment that I get my powers back, I am killing you.)

Othinus had her hands thrust back down to her sides as she tried to resemble a doll that clearly did not move on its own. Her usual clothes were covered by the monstrosity that was the dress as the girl brought out a table from the doll house and put them in front of Othinus.

"Ok Yui-chan! It's your birthday and Papa is going to wish you Happy Birthday! Papa-chan!" The girl grabbed a stuffed bear that was on the ground and used it to embrace Othinus as she suddenly felt her face pressed into the fur of the stuffed animal. She sent a muffled scream into the fur in order to vent, glad it was not heard before the girl pulled the bear away.

"Although Yui-chan, I heard that you were a bad girl at school. You shouldn't be mean to the other kids alright?"

(Where is this setting coming from!? Can't you follow a proper line of thought!? Who gets scolded on their birthday?)

"But since it's your birthday, we'll let you off! It's time for your party. The cake is….this!" The girl brought out something and placed it on the table in front of Othinus, a small scone that must have been gotten from the hospital cafeteria. Othinus edged her one eye down and looked at it with a pitiful glance before the girl brought out the plastic tea cups from the doll house.

"And we can't have cake without drinks! Do you want cake first or drinks Yui-chan? You're the birthday girl so you get first say! What was that? You want a drink first? OK!" The girl seemed to imagine that Othinus was saying something to complete the image of playing with dolls in her mind.

She brought out a drink of her own, something that seemed to have also been bought from the cafeteria as she poured it into the small, plastic cup. It started to fizz lightly and the bubbles that came from the cup sprayed into Othinus's face lightly.

The carbonated drink seemed almost perfect for the birthday party that Othinus seemed to be having yet her own thoughts only gave a cynical view of the party.

(I want the damn scone first, not the drink! And I thought this was going to be a tea party?! Keep the setting in the same place you idiot! And get this dress off me!)

Othinus complained endlessly as she suddenly felt the back of her neck grabbed rather tightly. She withheld making any sound as she had her gaze turned by the rather rough grip. The girl had held Othinus still, pinching her pretty hard as she lifted the cup with the drink in it with one hand. She tilted Othinus's head down towards it as her one eye went wide.

(No. No, you're not going to. Th-this is beyond humiliating! This is pure torture so don't think for a minute that you can-)

It was too late though as the girl poured the carbonated drink into what constituted Othinus's mouth. As it was closed and Othinus was breathing through her nose, the contents of the poured drink overflowed from the cup and spilled all over Othinus's face. It splashed against her, went up her nose as that was where she was breathing before soaking her to the bone in a fizzy liquid.

Othinus's body trembled. The fizzy drink had gone up her nose and was assaulting her body with a strange sensation. She wanted to cough however knew that the moment she did, with the tight grip on the back of her neck, that everything would be over; the children would probably take MORE advantage of her if they knew she was alive. She opened her mouth lightly to breathe through there but it only served to let the liquid in through her mouth as well.

The drink soaked her clothes, touching her skin and letting the liquid go all over her body in a way that made her all sticky and unpleasant to the touch. Naturally, this was not felt by the girl that was gripping her neck as she merely smiled at Othinus's plight.

"Good girl Yui-chan! Now how about some cake?"

(Please…..no…more…..)

The girl turned to pick up the scone as Othinus let out one cough as she spat out the liquid before maintaining the same position as she had before. The girl watched her in curiosity (had her cover been blown?) for a moment before shrugging (It hadn't, thank Othinus) and picking off a rather large crumb off the scone. She put the scone down and held out the crumb to Othinus.

"Here Yui-chan, say 'Ahhh'."

Othinus's mouth was hardly open meaning that there was no way for the girl to get the crumb inside as Othinus slightly exhaled with relief. This had to be over soon and there was no way that she was going to endure any more of this-

"Huh? I said 'Ahhh' Yui-chan. I thought that the mouth was moveable."

With the crumb in one hand, the girl reached out toward Othinus's mouth as the former Magic God's heart broke. It shattered into a million pieces as she truly felt like this was divine retribution for all the evil that she had done in her life.

(I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, so please don't come any closer with that hand!)

Othinus's internal plea though was ignored as the girl used her sharp nails to open Othinus's mouth. She was forced to comply and had her mouth opened until she could not open it anymore but even then the girl tried to force it open even more for the crumb to fit inside. Othinus felt as though her skull was going to break in two but as the girl realised that nothing could be done, she tried the usual tactic of applying more force than necessary.

She rammed the scone crumb that was bigger than Othinus's mouth into it as Othinus's mouth was twisted and her face smothered with the breakfast dish. In an effort to twist the scone inside, the girl pulled the scone out of Othinus's mouth before once more trying to ram it inside, repeating the process constantly in the hopes that the scone would break apart and enter her mouth.

It was definitely doing so but for Othinus, that in turn meant that her face was constantly being hit by the scone as bits broke off into her open mouth. She could not retaliate; for fear of doing so meaning that she would be subject to a greater hell of all of the children rather than this monster in front of her.

(Stop….bfbfbfhvbfbfh!)

She swallowed the parts of the scone that entered her mouth but for an average doll, its mouth surely would have been crammed full of scone without any way to breathe. Othinus struggled, with her face constantly being hit by the scone with bits breaking off into her mouth as she made a plea in her heart.

(Stop this, damn it!)

Her plea was answered as the scone was all forced into Othinus's mouth that she had to try and swallow without closing her mouth as the Demon Queen looked at her with a smile.

"Good Yui-chan. You need a drink don't you? Come on; let me help you swallow all of that down."

(Is this what you do to normal dolls!? Normal dolls can't swallow anything or drink so gain some realism in what you're doi-bfbfnbfbfbfhhffhf!?)

Othinus was assaulted again by the carbonated drink as it was poured over her again, thrusting Othinus into a world where she was forced to try and eat while being splashed with the drink.

"You aren't chewing there Yui-chan! Come on, open and close your mouth. Like this."

Without warning, the girl suddenly grabbed the top of Othinus's head and the bottom of her chin, pushing down on both as the action made Othinus's mouth close. Doing so made the former Magic God able to swallow without being suspicious but the girl repeated the process by opening Othinus's mouth again and pressing down on her head and chin to make her close it again.

Food and drink spilled everywhere as Othinus was force fed in a hellish way as she tried to get as much scone as necessary out of her mouth that she couldn't swallow. The girl smiled angelically but Othinus only felt contempt for what was happening to her.

(Never before…..have I experienced such humiliation!)

Othinus complained as the girl stopped, wiping Othinus's face rather roughly with her finger in order to get the bits of scone there out of her hair. There was no care in the action and Othinus felt as though if all of the dolls in the world were to gain a consciousness then there would be an uprising in the world that could be turned into a Hollywood blockbuster.

"Happy Birthday Yui-chan! You sure are a messy eater though!"

(WHOSE FAULT IS THAT!?)

The girl though roughly pushed Othinus down to the ground before turning and facing the bear that she had smothered into Othinus's face before as she talked to the bear, Papa-chan as she called it, leaving Othinus out of her field of vision.

Othinus blinked once, angling her body to face the girl and waited for a few seconds before slowly moving herself forward. Was this her chance? Like she had expertly calculated, the girl had lost interest in Othinus before long. Was her escape here and now?

Othinus moved herself forward a bit more, stopping like in a game of red light, green light. She moved a tiny bit more before freezing, watching the girl that had played with/tortured her. Was she watching? No, she was losing focus. This meant the perfect opportunity to escape was-

(Now!)

Othinus rose her body however found that it was lifted up by something that was not her own will. She was turned around and came face to face with the boy that had tried to remove the cloth near her breast before, only to find him grinning at her.

(Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Give me the cat, just anything else but this!)

"What are you wearing?" asked the boy to Othinus, as if expecting an answer. "What happened to the other cool stuff you were wearing? It was like that girl I saw on the television….Othinus or something right? I never knew that they were making dolls already as I thought that she was the enemy of the world…."

The boy said that without a care before roughly putting Othinus's arms up and frowning as he pressed hard on the skin of her bare arm.

"Is this….skin though?"

Othinus froze up immediately. Had she been found out? She turned her eye to face the boy that was looking more at her arm, squeezing it rather hard as he pressed his fingers upon the bone in an action that felt as though he was on the verge of crushing the arm itself.

She gulped as the boy looked at the arm before shrugging.

"Nah. Can't be. Let's get that cloth off you though."

(As much as I am glad that you didn't find me out, why do you feel the need to check under my clothes?! No, no, you're being too rough!)

The boy held up Othinus's arms with a brute amount of force as he pulled off the monstrous dress that was covered with the sticky fizzy drink. The cool air blew on her exposed body yet the boy seemed to look rather interested in what she was wearing. She had no idea why he was doing this but perhaps with nothing educating him about the more mature side of the world, he had gone to investigating himself.

(Still, that's no excuse! Leave me alone you little freak!)

"Huh? Where did Yui-chan go?"

The high pitched voice of the girl that had 'played' with her earlier, rose into the air as the boy froze as he had just gotten the frilly dress off Othinus. Othinus herself did the same as she was forced to choose between the lesser of two evils.

(This little perverted bastard or the Demon Queen from Hell!? Which is it!? This is important! In my 15 centimetre state, this is a matter of life or death!)

The boy though seemed to have other ideas as he ran outside into the outer playground that was connected to the inner and ran over to the sandpit that was there. He squatted over a part of the sand and Othinus felt as though she knew what was going to happen next.

(No. No, you aren't thinking that. Please tell me you aren't thinking that. These are not the droids you're looking for. You will not put me in the sandpit. You will not put me in the sandpit.)

"Now stay. I'm hiding you here so I'll be back." the boy said to her as if expecting an answer. If Othinus could answer, she would have however never got another word out as she was pushed into the sand rather roughly. Without hesitation, the boy covered her from head to toe with the sand, essentially burying her in it.

The sand stuck to her wet body as the boy placed more sand on her in order to cover her up; causing her to become completely covered as the boy ran off, leaving her behind. Othinus coughed now that she was alone and rose her head, watching as the boy played innocent with the girl.

(That…..bastard. He did it. He actually did it. This is more than demeaning. I want him to scream in pain. Burn you little bastard. BURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNN!)

Othinus kicked free of the sand and immediately moved without missing a beat; she had done so previously and it had cost her dearly. She wasn't going to make the same mistake again, that was for sure.

Covered with sand, she moved quickly, under the shade of a nearby tree and behind its trunk as she panted heavily, watching her torturers. She waved a tiny fist at them however that was all that she could do at the moment as she looked down at herself. Covered with sand and carbonated drink, she could tell that the experience she was made to suffer was not going to be erased from her mind any time soon.

But whatever, she had managed to escape. The only thing that was left now was to find a way out of this hellhole. There were plenty more little freaks in this place ready to get her but as far as she knew, she would have to do this stealthily.

Getting out without being seen. She had one life meaning that there were no restarts. And with nothing to hide her such as cardboard boxes, she was on her own. Doing a solo mission that was destined to determine her fate.

Yet even though that was the case, she gave a devilish grin as she watched her enemies with her one left eye, the right eye covered by an eyepatch before turning to the exit of the room and spoke to it.

"Kept you waiting, huh?"

She let out that nonsensical battle cry as she determined her path forward.

The densest path of the children was currently in the divider between the outside playground and the inside. That in turn meant that for now, unless there was some kind of distraction then there was no way that she was going to escape alive.

However, given her size, the obstacles that she was thinking of were perhaps smaller than she thought. But then again, while her size meant that conventionally, she was perfect for stealth, there were also other risks to be involved. Such as being choked and smothered, stepped on and put into sandpits to name a few.

It was a constant balancing act and these new risks were something that she had to get used to now that she was stuck with this 15 centimetre body. Still, keeping that in mind there was no way that she was going to get past the people in front of her without some sort of distraction.

"A stick of some kind?" asked Othinus aloud as she looked around her for something to throw to get the children's attention without knowing how effective it would be. She turned her head, looking behind her before she noticed something that had not been there before.

Two orange sticks were standing upright in the ground right behind her. However, they were not doing so by themselves.

_The talons that were attached to the bottom of those sticks attested to that._

While talons usually were associated with the birds of prey that many people admired and feared, the bird in question that the talons were attached to was not something that one usually considered a bird of prey. However, for the small animals such as rats, worms and former Magic Gods that were currently 15 cm tall, this was an accurate enough description.

The crow looked directly at Othinus as she looked up with her one eye and sweated rather viciously.

She had to do something however her body had frozen up. It was not out of fear; she was a former Magic God that had not hesitated in ripping out her own eye. Instead it more the fact that there was only one thing that the crow was going to do and it was going to happen even if Othinus tried to escape.

And she had frozen upon realising just how humiliating the entire process would be if indeed the crow did what she thought it was going to.

"P-"

Othinus opened her mouth and gazed away in a nervous manner as if she had been discovered reaching into the cookie jar.

"Polly want a cracker?"

She tried to divert attention to another source of food however the crow merely cried out its horrendous and ominous voice as it did exactly as Othinus expected it to.

It reached for the cape that was hanging off Othinus, picking it up with its beak before flapping its wings once and lifting itself off the ground. Othinus's cape was pulled tight, lifting her up as she suddenly felt like she was being choked as the crow took off into the air, pulling Othinus in tow.

And naturally, the only thing that Othinus could think of right now to do was merely yell out in complete humiliation.

"YOU DAMN BIRD! I'LL ROAST YOU ONCE I GET OUT OF THIS SO JUST YOU WAIT! HUMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!"

Othinus yelled for the only person that she knew would help her as she tried to struggle but the crow merely responded by suddenly dipping down. Othinus screamed as she headed for the ground before the crow pulled up at the last minute as if to demonstrate a point about what would happen if she continued talking.

Othinus understood it immediately and any questions that she had about what was happening to her were answered the moment that she saw the tree that she was being carried to. While the tree itself was something that was not out of place in the hospital, there was one thing that was perhaps significant about this particular one.

And that would have to have been the bird's nest that sat in the upper branches of that tree.

"You can't be serious!" Othinus spat out to the crow however it never replied as the crow descended to the nest, perching itself on one of the edges as Othinus got a good look inside.

Broken eggshells lay scattered around the nest, made from small twigs, cotton and other discarded pieces of small knick-knacks. While it might not have looked roomy to that former God, it served its purpose as being the home to the babies that were currently sitting inside the nest itself. They made high pitched chirping sounds that irritated Othinus's ears but anything that she had to say on the matter was lost as the crow dumped her unceremoniously into the nest.

She landed on the hard twigs and the crow took off, likely to find some more unfortunate victims as Othinus immediately backed up against the edge of the nest. Her small hand touched something, a twig that was poking out of the nest as she broke it and held it forward like it was a rapier.

It was nothing like her favoured Gungnir but it would have to do for now.

The three babies, feathers still forming on their recently created bodies chirped and cried with that high pitched whine that irritated Othinus to no end. While it was beautiful to see life being created and doing what it could to survive, it was Othinus's survival that was on the line right now.

And there was no way that she was going to lose now, not when it was most important.

The baby crows moved towards Othinus, obviously in an attempt to be the first one to eat their meal.

Othinus though only grabbed the twig in both of her hands and narrowed her one eye, looking forward as she spat out her battle cry in this new crisis.

"Let The Hunger Games begin."

* * *

"Wh-What happened to you?!"

"You're the last person I want to hear that from! Why are there rips in your hospital gown again even after you took off your cast yesterday, you simpleton? And is that a lip-shaped mark on your forehead?!"

"Huh? Wait, this normal Kamijou-san was kissed and can't even remember!? S-Such misfortune! D-Does it have to do with this honey scent that's stuck to me?! I wanna know!"

Kamijou Touma, the human that had saved Othinus in Denmark let out that cry as the boy and the former Magic God stood near the entrance to the hospital.

The boy, wearing a hospital gown and a cast was just as Othinus had said; having numerous rips in his hospital gown. Cuts to his face were merely light, giving scars and producing no blood but in terms of marks on his body, it seemed as though some dirt from who-knows-where had managed to get on his forehead, highlighting the lip-shaped mark that was there.

Othinus felt pissed just looking at that mark however she was in no better shape.

While her clothes had survived, her skin was covered with a sticky liquid that had sand and feathers stuck to her. There were remains of what seemed like scone crumbs on her edges of her mouth and scratches on her hands made it seem as though she had fought for her very life only moments before.

Both of their bodies ached as they looked at the other in surprise before Othinus grumbled and walked up to Kamijou. He watched her do so as she stomped on his foot without causing any pain before lifting up her arms like a child that wanted to be lifted by a parent. Kamijou quickly got the message as he lifted Othinus up to his shoulder where she sat cross legged as if she owned the world.

This was her spot though. It was merely a single part of Kamijou Touma's body but it seemed to contain a tranquillity that nothing else in the world would provide. It made her sour mood slowly decline as the familiarity and the warmth that was there filled her.

And no matter what happened to her, she was sure that she would always want to return right here.

"So…...are you willing to talk about what happened?"

"No. Are you?"

"No…...not really."

The both of them nodded at each other in silent understanding that neither was willing to share the pain that they had experienced only moments before as Kamijou slowly hobbled to his room. The silence that came between them was neither awkward nor uncomfortable but rather brooding, as if the both of them were trying to think of ways to tell the other what had happened.

After all, while they might be hesitant at first, the both of them knew that the other would worry if they did not explain themselves (although in truth Kamijou had no idea where in the world the kiss shaped mark had come from). While the boy was likely going to tell what had happened to him in front of Index so that she would not worry as well, Othinus had no real obligation to do the same.

What had happened to her could be thought of something private but at the same time, she could tell that the boy was worried for the 15cm girl. It was likely that the only way to ease his worries would be to tell him what had happened. Still, it was awkward to speak about mostly because of the humiliation of what had happened.

Even so though, Othinus did realise something as she looked at the boy that was making his way up the stairs as part of his rehabilitation.

And that was this boy was someone that understood her, and she him.

She might not have wanted to expose what had happened with the sand, remnants of scone, fizzy drink and feathers but at the same time she knew that she couldn't just leave it at that.

She needed to swallow her pride and confide in the one being that truly understood her, in the place where she felt most comfortable, safe and relaxed.

And that wasn't just on his shoulder.

It was right by his side.

"Human."

She started with that as Kamijou Touma kept on going, not saying anything as he allowed Othinus the chance to speak for herself, uninterrupted as she began her own tale of what happened in order to ease the boy's obvious worries.

"My story begins in a towering world filled with giants….."

* * *

**[1] The Bible verse for this would either be Exodus 20:7 or Deuteronomy 5:11.**

**And this is the end!**

**I guess you could say that this was one of the lighter hearted ones? What with merely humour and Othinus being subject to numerous humiliating things, I suppose that if you laughed somewhat or merely smiled and chuckled then this one-shot served to do what it was made to do.**

**In a way, a number of ideas came to me for this: Othinus being sucked up by a cleaning robot, being stuck in the sewer or something where she straps herself to Sphynx and rides through the City as the Lone Ranger. But then again, this is what came up, Othinus being treated roughly and without remorse by the worst enemy that she would have: children.**

**Naturally the kids in this were probably really cruel to their dolls but then again, Othinus pointed that out. I mean the amount of punishment she got as a doll was something that might make someone question the peacefulness of that girl but then again, the boy that was mentioned also has his scary childishness as well.**

**In a way, thinking of those two as Kiharas would be terrifying wouldn't it? Don't do it though as this is only a one-shot.**

**There were a couple of references within this one-shot but I think that I made them rather obvious in the grand scope of things while at the same time keeping them subtle. Again, if you laughed then that served its purpose. I DON'T OWN ANY OF THE SERIES THAT I REFERENCED OF COURSE! There I said it as a DISCLAIMER in bold and capital letters. Just saying it to be safe.**

**The last scene was merely an aftermath so there's not really much to say there. I guess you could say that there was a warm moment between Touma and Othinus there as I wanted but it was the fact that Othinus swallowed her pride and spoke about her troubles that is the greatest growth for her here as a character. Formerly a creature that destroyed the world, she is reduced to nothing more than a 15cm doll that has an immense fear of cats.**

**Overall though, I hope that you really enjoyed this Chibi Othinus chapter. I would always think that maybe she has it hardest of all being that she can be killed by literally everyone in the series, even the people that have no power at all. Merely apply one's foot and that's the end of it. That sudden power drop and how she would deal with the humiliation then was the focus of this and I hope that you thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope you laughed though, maybe just aa tiny bit.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please.**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**Being 15cm when you have to put up with this sort of thing really is no fun is it?**


	30. The Rumour II

**Last time on The Rumour:**

A hellish rumour has spread through Academy City!

_"It seems as though that boy, Kamijou Touma-kun is apparently looking for a girlfriend."_

Troubled and with her heart filled with doubts, Misaka Mikoto makes her way to A Certain High School where she knows the boy learns in order to have key questions about herself answered.

_(Is the rumour that you are looking for a girlfriend true?)_

_(What am I to you?)_

Uncertain about the response she will get and the fact that she can't trust Shirai Kuroko or any other members of Tokiwadai Middle School because of mutual feelings or possibly mutual feelings they have for the boy (although she is unsure about Shirai's), after dealing with those individuals, Mikoto arrives at the school.

_A light entered her eyes as she panted heavily, only slightly noting that on one of the floors there was a broken window that seemed to be broken from the inside judging by the glass on the ground but her focus was more on her own mind._

However, the moment that she arrives, a certain unwanted guest arrives!

_"Shokuhou…. Misaki."_

It was time for the tension between the #3 Level 5 Railgun (who had a flat chest) and the #5 Level 5 Mental Out (who had a large chest) to reach a critical breaking point!

_Shokuhou said nothing else as she held out that remote in a battle stance with a smile on her face as Mikoto tensed, watching her every move, sparks flying from her bangs seriously._

_She hadn't thought it would be easy._

_But then again she didn't think it would have been this hard either._

_But for that Level 5, it seemed as though the challenge in front of her was greater than she had ever imagined, a thought that she had once more._

_But another thought filled her mind in that one instant._

_Today…..was going to be a looooooooooooooooooong day._

**And now, let the next part of the story begin!**

* * *

It might not have looked like it but the life of Shokuhou Misaki was constantly on the edge of a knife, balancing on the fulcrum that was known as the 'status quo'.

There were things in life that always had to stay the same, change being a constant damned. There were things that had to stay the same and could never change and that was merely part of the status quo.

For example, the changing of the seasons. That would always stay the same to reflect the passing of the year.

For example, the separation of boys and girls when it came to changing rooms. That would always stay the same to prevent the males from abusing the females in certain ways that could get them arrested.

For example, Kamijou Touma never being able to remember Shokuhou Misaki. That would always stay the same despite the wrench in Shokuhou's heart every time they passed on the street and he never even gave her a second glance.

Those things were all an important part of the 'status quo'. Changing them would mean that there would be dire consequences so people always felt as though accepting them as they were was the thing to do. If you didn't like it, well tough luck. That was the way that things had to be and destroying that status quo was something that took a lot of power to do.

And the words that Shokuhou Misaki had heard earlier in the day had been enough to make her think about wanting to destroy that status quo.

Kamijou Touma was looking for a girlfriend.

Those simple words from a simple rumour had been enough to shake the core of Mental Out, and make the #5 take action and head to the school where she knew Kamijou studied at during the day.

Those simple words wanted to make her change the status quo and everything that it represented. She knew that there was no way that the boy would ever be able to remember her and destroying that status quo would have possible negative effects on his mind. Trying to restore the broken pathways in his brain that remembered her was supposedly impossible using current medical technology, even with her power so what would happen if they were restored through forceful means?

It was possible that more sections of his brain would have to be erased. It was possible nothing would happen too.

But destroying the status quo had those risks, only revealing just how dangerous the actions of Shokuhou were right now.

Honestly though Shokuhou Misaki could have cared less about those consequences. Any thought about herself or the boy was thrown out the window by those mere words that she had heard in the middle of the day at Tokiwadai Middle School.

That boy that she had spent so many wonderful times with, the boy that would forever be out of her reach was currently looking for a girlfriend. If there was anything that Shokuhou wished to not be true given her position, then it was that one thing.

Yet she had heard it and had to come to the realisation that the status quo that was in place only existed to make her the loser. Her, the #5 was in a position that was only there to make her suffer, even though it was one of her own making. She knew that the position she had placed herself in was something that she would never regret, after all it had been created for the sole purpose of protecting the boy but without knowing it, it had created this distasteful 'side effect'.

The section within the boy's brain about her was physically crushed. Any memory that he would have of her would be reset and the only way that he would be able to recall it would probably be on the same day as when the memory had happened or if he thought hard enough to the verge of breaking a few blood vessels in his brain.

But once that day passed, once he fell asleep and woke the next morning, she would be forgotten. The moment her back was turned, the boy would forget her and never be able to remember the times that they had.

Shokuhou Misaki did not regret the place she had set for herself; after all it had saved the boy's life. But…. when she truly thought about it, when she had heard that rumour, one thought had slapped her in the face.

And that was that it was a shitty status quo.

She had desires. She had wants. She had many things that she wanted to do with the boy but all of those things were things that only she would be able to remember. But, if she did them would they truly be 'experiences'? If the boy never remembered her, how could she look forward to the next day? Or the one after that?

When she had heard that rumour in her Dorm in the morning, she had dropped her tea cup in shock. A stake had been driven through her heart and she had spent the lessons in a stumble, unable to walk forward or think straight as her thoughts were clouded. She had come to accept her position but upon hearing the rumour for herself, something tightened within her chest as she came to realise a very basic point.

Was the only reason she was satisfied with her position because nothing like this had ever happened? She had committed herself to steel her heart whenever she saw someone else by the boy's side but never had she seen such a sight with the context of them being 'boyfriend and girlfriend'.

She had already had her turn to be saved and that in itself was enough. She had thought that she had gotten rid of the feelings inside her heart yet she knew that they lingered, hovering and silently making up the person that was Shokuhou Misaki.

But that rumour threw a spanner in the state of mind that she had formed for herself. Those simple words made a pain grow in her chest that was centred in her that no matter how much she clenched it, she could never get rid of. Seeing and imagining someone else by his side as a girlfriend only made her own mind circle around endlessly.

It could be thought of as a weakness within that #5 Level 5 esper. But she had to check the validity of the rumour, if only to settle the thoughts that were within her own heart. She knew that there were people out there that had the same feelings that she did but she knew no one with the possible exception of one that had had those feelings for the time that she had.

And in that time, it had all gone unrewarded.

For now though, it was time to change that.

Shokuhou's goal was simple, even if it did contain something of a personal note inside. And that was to check on the validity of the rumour with her own ears. Doing so over the phone was not going to hack it, mainly because she did not have his number and the fact that body language and facial expressions that could be expressed in person were not visible.

This was something that had to be asked in person and if Shokuhou were the hear the right answer from his mouth, the answer that was not influenced or affected by anyone else interfering, then the only thing that she had to do was ask him first. Doing so would not only give her claim to the prize possession that was Kamijou Touma but mean that no one could change his answer if he indeed was looking for a girlfriend.

To calm the thoughts within her, Shokuhou Misaki was determined to reach Kamijou Touma first and ask him that question that many people wanted to.

'Is it true that you are looking for a girlfriend?'

There were two possible answers that entered Shokuhou's mind. If the answer was 'no', then Shokuhou knew that the position that she had set up for herself was safe, something that she would continue to maintain. She had no qualms about that; she had lived with that shitty status quo for almost a year and could still smile in the fact that Kamijou had a silent place in her heart that was not tainted by an official relationship with another.

If the answer was 'yes' though…. then that brought an entirely different issue to mind.

That issue could even be called Shokuhou Misaki's salvation.

She knew that her section within the boy's brain was crushed. If there was a method to restore his memory of her or make him remember her right now, then it was beyond her and she could not see a possible way to achieve it. Yet, right now there was a chance open for her that she had never seen before.

Memories were generally split up into three types; semantic, episodic and procedural. If there was a 'Shokuhou Misaki' part of that brain, then it would be located in the episodic memory part of the boy's brain however he had lost his memories. While that meant that he could not recall what had happened to him before (only recalling knowledge of what had happened), he was still making more memories, even with that 'Shokuhou Misaki' part destroyed.

However….what about if there was a strong association of 'Shokuhou Misaki' with a different part of his episodic memory? Episodic memory governed things such as family, name and relationships.

Yes, _relationships_.

Even with his lost memories, memory techniques could always be used to remember difficult things. Using songs helped remember long lines of text, associating numbers with words to help remember them better or even putting together different objects to make sense of something, association was a common memory technique that allowed one to recall different things.

If one did not remember how to remember the order of the months and how many days were in each, they could use their knuckles and the spaces between them to remember. If that was the case, then was that memory strictly related to 'the months' or 'the knuckles' used to remember them?

It could be said that it was a part of both. One remembered the knuckles to remember the months and even if one forgot 'the months', as long as one had the memory technique of 'the knuckles' one could recall the forgotten 'months'.

Then, what about Kamijou Touma's memories?

'Shokuhou Misaki' would never exist within his memory, that much was certain given the state of his brain and current medical technology even with Academy City standards. She would always be forgotten and that was the status quo.

But…..what about a girlfriend? Forgetting such for the boy right now would be impossible, after all it would leave such a strong impact on him that it would become rooted in his mind. Whether or not he said 'no' or 'yes', Shokuhou Misaki would be associated with the word 'girlfriend'. Despite forgetting her, would her forget his girlfriend or someone associated with such?

Whatever the case, there was a small fragment of salvation in front of Shokuhou right now. Whether or not she became his girlfriend was irrelevant, only a second step. What was important was that she was remembered and if was she associated with being his 'girlfriend' then it was possible that she could be remembered by the boy.

It could be his actual girlfriend if he was actually looking for one or the blonde, honey-scented, large breasted girl that had addressed the topic of girlfriends if he wasn't looking for one and the rumour was not true.

Thus, through the use of 'association', it was possible that Shokuhou Misaki could be remembered by Kamijou Touma. But it would only work if she was the first one to ask him about the rumour.

If indeed he was looking for one and she did not reach him first and ask about the rumour, then she would be 'overwritten' by his actual girlfriend and forever have to live with the fact that she had not made it in time. If he wasn't looking for a girlfriend though, she might be 'overwritten' anyway given the amount of people that would probably ask him about it but in the former case, it was much more important.

But that thought, that thought that she could be remembered pushed her forward. Despite her own pains and the thought of someone else by Kamijou's side, Shokuhou Misaki pushed herself and her unathletic body forward.

She had managed to erase herself from her classmate's and teacher's minds in order to escape and head to A Certain High School with her goal in mind, to verify the rumour with her own ears and possibly be remembered. The temptation only made her push forward yet at the same time, her reddened face and own hesitation only made her seem to step slower and slower to her goal.

If he did in fact remember her through using association, it would be through the term 'girlfriend' either as his proper one or someone that merely asked. That in itself was enough to make Shokuhou burst into tears from happiness but if indeed, in her quest to be remembered she ended up his girlfriend…

She almost collapsed as the weight of the thought pressed heavily on her mind. She blushed but shook her head, trying to focus on the present and what she had to do now.

Because right now, she was in front of her opposite; Misaka Mikoto, the #3 Level 5 esper of Academy City. The both of them had made it here to A Certain High School and the both of them stood in a challenging stance, Shokuhou with a remote held forward and Mikoto with sparks flying from her bangs.

The both of them knew why the other was here and the both of them realised that if they wanted to get the answers that they wanted, they had to be the one to ask Kamijou Touma the basic question first.

'Are you looking for a girlfriend?'

Their desires, hopes and pride as heroines rested on those few words but right now, they were facing each other for the chance to say those words first. For Shokuhou, her motives were rooted in wanting to be remembered but that did not mean that she did not love the boy. It was embarrassing to say but that was the reality that was there.

Shokuhou though could not say the same for Mikoto. She could only assume or read her mind but the latter was impossible and the former was something that could easily be figured out if they were close but they were hardly such. Shokuhou doubted that they would ever be able to just 'sit down and talk about what Mikoto felt about Kamijou Touma' given their relationship despite the incidents that they had been through together.

The only thing though that Shokuhou _did _know was that Mikoto was going to ask the question to Shokuhou's prince. The question that _she _had to ask first in order to achieve her goal.

While it was unknown to the both of them whether they both shared the same intense feelings (in truth they could only assume and guess and the other's feelings were never actually confirmed by the other despite their teasing) they could probably guess that they had both been saved by him, something that Shokuhou knew about Mikoto and Mikoto guessed about Shokuhou or at the very least that she had a strong connection to the boy.

But whatever the case with their connections, it was clear that the both of them were ready for a fight to reach Kamijou first and ask that question.

"Do you really think you can win Shokuhou?" asked Mikoto as she knelt down, sparks flying from her bangs. "Your remotes have circuits inside of them and even your phone uses electricity. You've basically brought me everything I need to defeat you."

"Do you think _you _can win Misaka-san? We're both here for the same reason I can guess but that is it. We know nothing else about the other in their relation to that boy but that's not stopping me or you. And since it's not stopping me, I have to ask…..don't you think that it's time to prove that I've always had greater superiority ability to you? Especially…." Shokuhou looked down at Mikoto's chest with a sparkle in her starry eyes as Mikoto went rather red in the face (which only added to the red already there) as she responded.

"You're going down so I can find out where I stand."

"I can't lose here today. Not when there is a talk I owe that boy that you could never understand."

There was emotion and longing behind the words both girls spoke but it was likely that neither of them knew the heartfelt emotion that both Tokiwadai students held. Which meant that the only way to solve their differences was to determine who the stronger one was.

A serious fight between the #3 and the #5.

It started in a way that no one expected as the manipulative and cautious Shokuhou Misaki made the first move.

She wasted no time in throwing the remote into the air before reaching into her bag and pressing a button of another remote at the same time. The thrown remote flew in a parabolic arc before falling onto the ground lifelessly but Mikoto had already reacted to that move.

She threw a lightning spear right at Shokuhou, with enough voltage to at least cause her to fall unconscious or be incapacitated as the electricity would be absorbed by those horrible lumps of fat. It flew through the air however did not hit its target.

Instead it was directed to the remote that was flying through the air, the item acting as a lightning rod as the circuits immediately overloaded and gave off slight bursts of smoke. It wasn't enough to cause the entire circuits to explode but just enough to burst them as they sent small amounts of black smoke into the air from the remote.

The smoke hovered lightly into the air yet Shokuhou had already used that distraction to move, heading backwards with as much force as she could and as fast as she could. She realised that being unathletic was her disadvantage here as Mikoto immediately broke into a run.

Given their difference in athletic ability, Mikoto would reach Shokuhou within seconds yet all Shokuhou had to do was lead Mikoto to the location that she wanted.

Which is what she did within the short time period that she had before Mikoto caught up, the Electromaster trying to reach out and grab Mental Out. Yet the #5 expected it to be coming, doing something that was entirely unladylike as she whipped around and used the edge of her handbag, striking the side of Mikoto's face.

The edge was hardly sharp enough to draw blood, as seen when she had hit Kamijou Touma with it, but it was enough to throw Mikoto off completely given how Shokuhou had resorted to such violent means to draw her back despite her more manipulative methods.

But what Shokuhou was fighting for right now meant that she didn't care about keeping up appearances. She WOULD reach Kamijou first and be the one to ask him that question about this stupid rumour!

Mikoto stepped back as Shokuhou immediately threw herself to the ground as the #3 looked at her with pure malice in her eyes. Sparks flew from her bangs however it meant nothing as none of them hit Shokuhou because suddenly, a massive torrent of water flew out of nowhere and struck her in the back.

Mikoto was winded as she flew through the air and hit the ground, turning to see that one of the students was standing at the entrance of the school, holding what looked to be a fire hose. While Tokiwadai had fire extinguishers, it seemed as though this school had both extinguishers and fire hoses, something that Mikoto had seen herself when she had visited the school for the Ichihanaransai. Then again it wasn't as if Mikoto had checked whether her school had fire extinguishers or fire hoses herself.

"Wha-" asked Mikoto however she never got another word out as she was blasted with another torrent from the hose, throwing her to the ground and causing the dirt to stick to her wet clothes.

"Did you really think that I would be the one to take you on alone Misaka-san?" asked Shokuhou as she got up from the ground. While she had no reason to explain to Mikoto when she had managed to take control of the student, she had been hard pressed finding a close enough target when she had first thrown the remote as a distraction.

She had been lucky though and it had paid off.

"You-!" Mikoto said however Shokuhou wasted no time talking to her, turning and heading towards the school in a light run, both in enthusiasm at her victory and nervousness at the thought of the results that were going to be created as soon as she asked the question that filled her mind.

She passed by the broken glass on the ground from the broken window higher up, passing the student that was holding the fire hose, only for him to convulse suddenly before collapsing to the ground.

Shokuhou looked absolutely surprised at that, realising that he was smoking in some places and that small sparks were leaping into the air here and there. She turned and faced Mikoto who looked absolutely livid in her wet clothes as she narrowed her eyes.

"Basic conductor knowledge Shokuhou. Water conducts electricity. I didn't realise that your breasts sealed your ability to think!"

Shokuhou gritted her teeth and immediately picked up the hose itself, something that she pointed straight at Mikoto.

"Misaka-san!"

"Shokuhou!"

Shokuhou immediately pressed down on the lever to unleash the stream of water straight at Mikoto. It hit her in the chest as she was once more winded however by covering her entire body with electricity; she sent it surging through the water. It raced up the liquid form and struck Shokuhou who was holding the hose itself as the shock of Mikoto's electricity threw her back.

Both Level 5s flew backwards as they hit the ground, groaning slightly and coughing. It was Shokuhou that rose first though, reaching into her handbag and pressing another button on a remote that she had within as she sent a command through it to the people that were nearby.

She stood up quickly, stumbling slightly as she made her way further into the school. She ascended the stairs nearest to her, making her way to the next floor only to hear the roar of the monster behind her. She didn't have to turn around however knew that without a doubt, it was Misaka Mikoto that was heading for her right now.

She began sweating profusely as she made her way to the nearest classroom, looking through the windows and grinning slightly.

Shokuhou turned and faced Mikoto who was approaching, backing away slightly given how close the girl was to her. However just as that master of manipulation had planned, she never got any closer to touching Shokuhou and taking her out of the game.

Chairs and desks flew through the window of the classroom that they were next to, throwing glass everywhere and Shokuhou fell to the ground to avoid it. Mikoto used the iron sand sword that she had created at some point to slice those objects in two as Shokuhou felt as though Mikoto had truly lost it. After all, that type of weapon wasn't something that had a Stun setting meaning that either she was intent on killing Shokuhou or at least wanted to intimidate her to the level of taking her out of the game.

Given the expression on her face and the fact that she was nothing more than an Amazon, it was clearly the former!

The boys in the classroom continued throwing the desks and chairs, something that Mikoto cut in two as Shokuhou crawled along the ground in pure determination to reach her goal. She wasn't going to be stopped and wasn't going to let this chance go to waste!

Mikoto saw the movement and immediately took to action, using magnetism to rise to the roof where the controlled people would have trouble throwing the desks and chairs before she spotted something in front of her.

She immediately swung at it with her iron sand sword as the fire sprinkler broke in two, sending a high pitched alarm through the entire building as it set off. Water sprayed everywhere and soaked Shokuhou that was crawling along the ground, something that she seemed to realise immediately.

While people cried out at the sudden spraying of water in other classrooms, it was Shokuhou that realised the offensive potential of what the water could be. She panicked, turning around where she was on the ground to face Mikoto while at the same time pulling a remote out of her bag as Mikoto descended from the roof.

Mikoto landed with her iron sand sword located right above Shokuhou while she had the remote placed right on Mikoto's throat, the two of them staring at each other with expressions that suggested that they both had their own reasons for being here.

While it had been short, this was still a serious fight. Shokuhou knew that she had no way of winning using conventional tactics so she had tried to use every trick in the book even though she was unathletic. But the result was obvious. Mikoto was more used to fights so it was clear that she would be the superior one and the match had already been decided as soon as they had decided to fight.

But that was of course the natural result given that Shokuhou was using Mental Out's mental capabilities.

There were other capabilities of her power, something that she had seen with Mitsuari Ayu. Mental Out controlled the brain through the use of moisture but although there was more to it than that for simplicity's sake, Shokuhou felt it easier to think of her power as one that controlled moisture in the brain to thus affect and control minds.

But there were cases where her ability was something that could affect an external environment rather than just within one's mind.

She had seen it with Mitsuari's Mental Stinger when Kamijou Touma had showed up. Her intense anger had created a physical change where she had been able to create a territory around her that created a phenomenon like freeze-drying where anything that entered it crumbled. While that was one application of using their power to affect a physical environment, it was clear that given the right conditions, Shokuhou could control moisture not only in the brain but all around her.

Allowing her to create a phenomenon like freeze-drying.

And the conditions to create it were things like anger.

Or perhaps to put it another way, _a large amount of emotional pressure_.

Shokuhou could feel it within her right now as she pressed the remote up against Mikoto's throat, a tiny change that was happening within her very body as if something was being overwritten and being replaced. Her own powerful desire, the wish to have the chance to speak and be remembered by Kamijou, was right in front of her.

She didn't care if she died or the world ended. She didn't think about who would suffer and cry because of it.

She just wanted this one chance to be remembered by that one boy and here someone was, standing in her way.

Was it really too much to ask?

Was it too much to ask to want to overturn this shitty status quo?

The two Level 5s merely stared each other, trying to get a read off the other and the tension within the air could be cut with a knife. Yet the silence that resounded through the air was broken by the sound of someone clapping, something that made the two Level 5s turn their heads to face in front of them, or in Shokuhou's case on the ground she had to angle her head backwards.

Her heart and breathing stopped as soon as she saw the person in front of her, grinning like an idiot while she was looking at the two Level 5s. At some point, boys had appeared all around the two girls with looks of shock on their faces wondering what the hell two Level 5s were doing fighting in their school.

Yet Kumokawa Seria stood among it all without a care.

"Now, now you two. Let's calm down shall we? It was a wonderful show however there's no point entering a competition when the prize had already been taken."

She said those words calmly but the effect that they had on the two girls was obvious. Their faces seemed as though they had lost a family member or something precious to them and that in itself made the boys that were looking at them turn away in order to make sure that they never saw the hurt faces of those girls. Kumokawa though paid no mind to it as she squatted near the two of them.

The sprinklers stopped but she didn't pay attention to that as she shook her head.

"It's hardly what you're thinking you two, even though _I know why you're both here_. But in the chaos and mess that your minds are right now, did you notice? _That broken window? _Whose seat do you suppose was right next to it with this ridiculous rumour floating around?"

Both of the Level 5s eyes went wide as Mikoto immediately stood up and clenched her fists around her iron sand sword.

"A-Are you kidding me!? He escaped his school from his window during lunch to escape the rumour?! That bloody idiot! He could be anywhere now!"

Mikoto didn't bother taking note of the destruction that she had caused as she ran back the way that she came, passing by the cut desks and chairs as well as the destroyed books and pens within that had been soaked by the sprinklers. Shokuhou on the other hand did not stand up but merely pointed her remote at Kumokawa.

She rose both of her hands in a gesture of defeat and surrender.

"Is that anyway to thank me?"

"What are you up to?" asked Shokuhou with her eyes narrowed however Kumokawa gave her a serious expression.

"I heard the rumour today to be honest. Unfortunately, when I did the party involved somehow managed to fly the coop before I could ask him about it. If I had been sooner, I think I could be in the position that we both want. But now that you're here, I think I'll make things rather difficult for him as punishment by letting you in on that vital piece of information."

"And why would you do that? I hardly think your kindness ability extends so far, especially when it's related to _him_."

Kumokawa grinned.

"Don't you think that you owe me now, Mental Out? I have a number of things that I want to ask you to do."

"This has non-canon ability with A Certain Unknown Level 0 you realise?"

Kumokawa's face fell before she clutched her head and slammed it on the floor repeatedly.

"D-Damn it! I forgot completely! W-Well whatever," said Kumokawa even though she failed to try and hide the fact that she was a little bit disappointed. "But I think that you're rather ignorant of a certain important point."

"And what would that be?" Shokuhou stood slowly as she pocketed her remote while the boys that were around them looked as though they were still wondering what in the world was going on.

Kumokawa responded though by waving a hand around as if to gesture to the school.

"You create so much chaos, set off the fire alarm yet where is the panic? Don't you think that it's awfully quiet? I mean while I heard some coming down from the hall, meaning that not everyone is interested in it or some people are ignorant of this rumour, aren't there a lack of _girlish screams_?"

Shokuhou gaped at what Kumokawa said before gripping the remote in her handbag so hard that she felt it would crack. She had thought that the rumour had only affected Tokiwadai Middle School however she realised that she had been wrong.

She didn't think that it would also affect most of the female population of A Certain High School as well!

"That spiky haired idiot! He's going to have to keep it in his pants when I've had my way with him! If this rumour has nothing but falsehood ability, I'm going to seriously turn whoever made it into a vegetable!"

Shokuhou stormed off, leaving Kumokawa behind however she still kept the third year high school student in the back of her mind. Kumokawa had said so after all; that she would have taken advantage of the rumour if she had managed to reach Kamijou in time.

But she hadn't meaning that she was also in the running to ask about the rumour, even if she wasn't moving right now.

So what was her plan?

Whatever it was, it had nothing to do with Shokuhou as she made her way through the School, heading into the courtyard and into the City beyond.

The only thing that she wondered now was how many females there were running rampant to the extent that it could be called a riot.

* * *

The Anti-Skill van turned violently around the corner and a number of girls that were in its way screamed and threw themselves to the ground. The van's driver though paid no mind to it though as he continued his trek through the City. The person in the passenger seat took a look outside and narrowed her eyes as she looked at the girls that were on the ground.

For some reason they were wearing the same high school uniform and given the time of day they should have been in school so it was a mystery as to why they were outside.

Yet the person in the passenger seat only gave a sigh as she looked at the person next to her; a member of Anti-Skill that had stars in his eyes.

"Take a right up here."

"Understood."

The Anti-Skill officer turned the corner and Shokuhou Misaki in the passenger seat gripped onto the side of the door in order to steady herself. While she was controlling people now to cover more ground for her area of reconnaissance, there was something else that she was dedicating her mind to right now.

And that was trying to find out where Kamijou Touma was right now.

Although she had never stated it out loud, she was someone that had known him for a longer period than anyone else. While she had kept her distance this entire time to maintain this crappy status quo, the times that she had seen him by chance were those that she allowed herself a small time to reflect on what had happened between them.

That and also allow her the chance to get to know him better, on the off chance that a miracle happened and he managed to remember her.

It was only a one sided hope for her but somehow whenever she felt down, she would always return to trying to understand the person whose mind she could not read.

This situation then was something that she had seen countless times before in the times when she had been silently watching him from the shadows. This particular situation wasn't something that had happened before exactly but the events were basically the same.

After all, it was a practically normal occurrence that the boy would be chased around the City for some reason or another. While the parties chasing him changed, the party being chased was usually the same meaning that Shokuhou had a good sense of this situation as she had seen it before.

The only question was: _w__here would Kamijou flee to now?_

He was in a situation where he was being chased by numerous girls, such as the ones that Shokuhou had almost hit. As such, given the volume of those chasing him, the only thing that he could do was likely flee if the alternative was being swamped with the same question from different people.

"Take a left and go straight."

"Understood."

So, where was he hiding?

Shokuhou had come to understand many things about the boy in the time that she had watched him. Things such as how when it came to shopping specials which supermarket he would visit first because it usually never ran out of specials. Things such as how when it came to stormy weather, he would always carry an extra umbrella in case one got torn or if a girl or boy (somehow he usually came across the former but the latter happened sometimes as well) was left standing in the rain without one so he could offer it to them.

And things such as how when it came to being chased, he would always go through areas that had a wide space before switching to narrow spaces and back again.

When it came to stupid things like being chased by delinquents, Kamijou usually went through wide areas in order to make the enemy think that it was OK to spread out, before going into a thin alley. Doing so meant that the enemy would constantly be spreading out before having to group together once more in order to chase him.

Doing so wasted a lot of time for the enemy and allowed Kamijou the chance to escape so Shokuhou guessed that that was what he was doing now if he was indeed being chased by numerous girls.

But the thing was: Which wide area was he going to go through first?

If he had been seen, it was something that would likely have been noticed by everyone. There would be screaming and esper powers flying in all directions to which his location would be pretty easy to establish. But since there was none of that, Shokuhou guessed that it was safe to assume that he had yet to be found.

So where was he?

Since she was looking at a wide area, Shokuhou was also considering areas where there were a lot of bends in the alleys as causing the enemy to go from left to right constantly meant that they would tire out quickly and also lose Kamijou quicker. Not to mention that in addition to that there had to be a lot of good hiding places that weren't obvious.

When said and considered like that there still might have been a lot of the City that had to be checked out but it was something that Shokuhou had to go on and that was better than nothing.

"Still, his fleeing ability is definitely worthy of an Olympic medal. Right up here."

"Understood."

The Anti-Skill van swerved violently as Shokuhou gripped tighter on the hand rail that she was holding. Even though she had acquired certain criteria, seeking out the boy was still hard as Shokuhou frowned.

Where in the world was he? Was he hiding in the last place anyone would think to look, his dorm room? Was that where she had to go? It was definitely a consideration but then again, it went against the criteria that Shokuhou had set for herself.

Then again, there was the possibility that Shokuhou did not know the boy as well as she thought she did however such a possibility was something that she wasn't ready to consider just y-

The obstacle came out of nowhere, causing the man in the driver's seat to swerve suddenly, causing Shokuhou to cry out as the vehicle skidded along the ground and came to a stop right in front of the obstacle that had blocked their path.

"Wh-What in the world?!" asked Shokuhou as she looked at what had blocked their path, unable to find the words.

The reason was simple.

In their way stood a large armoured vehicle, having a tank like turret on the top. It looked more like a war machine if anything and Shokuhou felt as though this was one of the products that had been created by the defence forces of Academy City during WWIII and the chaos with GREMLIN. But right now, that tank was blocking the road ahead of them as it turned its turret to face Shokuhou's van.

Shokuhou wasted no time, pressing a button on her remote against the head of the man next to her, reading his mind and picking out the information she needed on the tank that was in front of them, even though it was more of an armoured vehicle.

The armoured vehicle, unmanned in nature was known as the HsWAV-15. Or the Ten Legs. Indeed, as Shokuhou had assumed it was meant for war however the information that she gathered from the Anti-Skill officer next to her was only interesting in one sense.

The vehicles were _unmanned_.

There was likely a computer or something built inside the thing that allowed it to move. And as such, it likely could be hacked.

And who did Shokuhou know that could accomplish such a thing and was brazen enough to do something like this in order to intimidate everyone else into escaping and thus not look into the rumour? There was only one person as Shokuhou grit her teeth and spat out the name of her rival.

"Misaka….. Mikoto."

The unmanned armoured vehicle's turret had turned to face Shokuhou's van and someone jumped onto the top of the vehicle itself. The Tokiwadai uniform immediately stood out amongst everything else meaning that Shokuhou knew that her assumption of who her enemy was spot on.

"Shokuhou! You give up right now; otherwise you'll be on the receiving end of this weapon!"

Was she seriously thinking that? She doubted that Mikoto was willing to kill over a rumour however then again; today had been so full of surprises that anything was possible. Shokuhou only had to wait for pigs to fly next and then she would have accepted anything that anyone told her.

But right now, the greatest challenge that she had to face was the one that was right in front of her now.

Shokuhou held out a hand and the Anti-Skill officer next to her placed a megaphone into it as she opened the window and stuck her honey blonde hair out as well as her head. People (mostly girls) that were watching went wide eyed as they recognised and realised their rivals while Shokuhou shouted though the megaphone.

"Now, now, Misaka-san. I can see right through your bluff." Shokuhou hoped it was definitely such. "Who do you think is driving this thing? Not me, not with my driving ability. Are you truly willing to get innocent people mixed up in this when this is between you and me?"

"I personally think this involves everyone here."

"….. Good point. Let me rephrase that question. Are you willing to get other people caught up in the explosion should you fire on this vehicle?" asked Shokuhou as she conceded a point.

Mikoto's face seemed to contort as she realised that she had been called out on her bluff as Shokuhou merely smiled in response.

"But Misaka-san, you have landed yourself with rather high disadvantage ability."

"How so?"

"That vehicle, the Ten Legs, is _unmanned_. Meaning that I have no problems blowing it up~ . Did you really think that I only controlled this one person in order to drive? My eyes and ears are everywhere."

Mikoto's eyes went wide at that statement as Shokuhou gave her silent challenge as the back of the Anti-Skill van suddenly opened, revealing a member of Anti-Skill holding a RPG. The rocket-propelled grenade was something that Mikoto recognised on sight as she went pale and looked at the surrounding area.

"You-!"

"According to the knowledge that this man next to me has, the explosion ability should only be enough to engulf you. Are you ready for Round 2 Misaka-san?" Shokuhou found that she spat out the words rather venomously as Mikoto crouched herself down.

The both of them knew after all.

If there was anyone else that had the chance to confirm the rumour for themselves, then it was the other Level 5 of Tokiwadai. They would not listen to one another, being on bad terms and it was likely that even begging with the other would not work. The only way that they could achieve their own goals and fulfil the desire in their heart was to take the other one out.

Naturally, they didn't intend to kill the other. It was just that when it came to Level 5s, in order to do some damage, even if it was small, _something on the scale of a RPG was needed in the first place._

Both Shokuhou and Mikoto knew that toys would not work and as a result, the both of them knew that it was time to bring out the big guns.

They had used people and water in Round 1.

Round 2 though was going to be done using people and weapons of mass destruction.

Because that would be what it would take to win against those monsters that had opposed them.

And they did it because of the feelings that slept within them.

The Anti-Skill man, or rather Shokuhou controlling him, pressed the trigger of the RPG as the projectile flew from the weapon. It sailed through the air as Mikoto formed in her hand a shield that was made from a manhole cover that she had brought closer to herself using magnetism. Naturally that would not be enough to stop the warhead flying toward her yet Mikoto had already formed another weapon.

She controlled magnetism and lifted up another manhole cover and sent it flying at the warhead in an effort to intercept it however it was no use as the warhead exploded long before Mikoto had even reached it with the manhole cover.

The resulting explosion thumped both Mikoto and Shokuhou in the chest as they felt themselves winded and coughed violently in response however they never left the gaze of the other. They waited for their next move as Mikoto and Shokuhou stared each other down.

The split second as their eyes met was reminiscent of an old Western duel at high noon. Although there were some differences; there was no tumbleweed, old fashioned revolvers or saloons (only scared people, scientific warheads, esper powers and their personal feelings involved) the feeling that the both of them got was the same.

Yet, even though that was the case one question filled their minds as they kept their focus on each other.

Why had the warhead exploded in mid-air even though it hadn't hit its target?

Other people on the ground were also winded but it seemed as though they were regaining their composure and calm as they watched in awe the fight that was taking place. None of them had the calm nature or skill to do something like explode a warhead in mid-air, so who had been the one to do it?

The question was answered though as the smoke from the warhead was immediately cleared by a large burst of wind that made the girls scream out as their skirts were blown upwards. If a guy had been there and in his own mind, it was likely going to set off the 'lucky panty utopia' spoken of in most eroges but there was nothing of the sort.

Both Mikoto and Shokuhou turned their heads to where the source of wind had come from and respectively showed expressions of shock and confusion.

"Hiya there Level 5s. I heard something interesting on the grapevine so if you could please direct me to that fool, it would be much appreciated. Oh, and I'm here to take you out of the running so please don't resist."

A haughty voice resounded through the air as both of the Level 5s looked at the new player that had appeared, seeing a short girl in a white dress with blonde hair that honestly looked as though she could pass off as royalty if she hadn't spoken with that arrogant tone.

Only Misaka Mikoto though silently said the girl's name, something that Shokuhou Misaki managed to pick up perfectly.

"Leivinia…Birdway."

Shokuhou felt a chill up her spine as she looked at the small girl that had a sword placed on her shoulder as she grinned at both of the Level 5s. However she had done it, she had taken out the warhead in mid-air, doing so with a calm nature and skill.

And here she was, to take them out of the 'running'.

Meaning that she was looking for Kamijou Touma for the same reason that they were.

All because of that one rumour.

'Kamijou Touma is looking for a girlfriend'.

Somehow, as Shokuhou Misaki looked at Leivinia Birdway, she felt as though things were going to get worse before they got better.

* * *

**I've put the thanks and the answering of questions here because it makes more sense than having it at the top. I just feel as though it fits better here but whether or not it does or not is entirely up to you.**

**But here we are with the Q &amp; A:**

**whwsms: Aren't we all waiting for the reveal for the connection between Touma and Kumokawa? Kamachi is such a tease in this regard. And as for the idea of Mitsuari Ayu, I've got an IDEA for it but haven't penned anything down as of yet but I'll have to see where things go from here in terms of the idea. I'm eager for it though because as a heroine Ayu has the tragic feel about her that I really want to explore myself. Not only that but she's a great character despite how broken her nature is.**

**dragonrider66: Haven't seen Ant Man but if there are connections to my story to anything Marvel I think that that is purely coincidental. Mind you though it's interesting to see how such coincidences come about. And as for the NT 16 stuff, check out either the ToAru Universe page on Facebook or on the Animesuki forums for Index light novels. Both of good sources of information if you want to learn about upcoming Index updates and the like.**

**Agent Nine: S-Somehow I can't deny the comment that you've made. It's like Toy Story 4 except everything's gone wrong and there is only a small hell that Othinus has to face. It's amusing how you interpreted it like that though!**

**naruhinasakufan1: Thanks for your words however I have to note that there is a fan drawn comic out there where Othinus is playing with a Touma figma and thinks of it as her husband. It was released around the time NT 10 came out if you are interested in it but since you made that comment, I felt as though I at least had to mention it.**

**wildarms13: Thanks for your words and I'll definitely try and do some more fluffy moments between characters although at the same time there will probably also be a mix of different tones with the stories I'm aiming to do. As for another Chapter of Possible Futures Kaleidoscope I've got an IDEA for where it take it past the one-shot but nothing has been cemented yet. Please be patient and await what is to follow and I hope you enjoyed this chapter despite it not being what you were looking for.**

**Red Glasses: Thanks for your PM and what do you know?! You made it into the spotlight here. Firstly though I would like to thank you for making those two covers for me however unfortunately looking at the both of them it seems as though they don't seem 'tailored' for the story that I have. Perhaps this is my own personal opinion but I'm not going to be placing them as images. Despite that though I REALLY want to thank you for the effort that you put behind them. You have no idea how much it means to me. Thanks once again though and for what it's worth, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter!**

**pop2ww:Seeing Touma in a chibi version getting rushed by his harem technically wouldn't be that bad a death. It would be instantaneous given that he would be crushed but it's amusing to think about regardless! And if 'drowning in a bag of blood' made you shiver….well let's just say that a chapter I'm in the process of writing will make you cry tears of blood. Hopefully it's not the case but there it is. Personally I also like the Touma and Othinus relationship (romantic or otherwise) simply because of the forgiveness that Touma gives Othinus and the acceptance that they have for each other. It's a rare dynamic and if you were to tell me during NT 8 that Othinus would come to be the person that really is close with Touma on an emotional level, I wouldn't have believed you. Their relationship is quite unique and also adds to one of the great characters in the Raildex universe.**

**Murray Bodine: Like with Travis, I felt as though his character was more of the 'adult' kind in order to separate him from the rest of the kids that I had been dealing with in MINUS and give an alternate or mirror perspective to the Magic Side. In terms of character, I felt as though I created him more as a casual Shizuo Heiwajima from Durarara with perhaps a more desperate look to him, as if he had lost something. So think of Shizou with unkempt hair, perhaps sweating slightly and with that desperate look in his eyes that borders upon scared to begging. As a character, I felt as though it as necessary to create a parallels between the partners after Travis had been taken out, hence I had Murray created in this way.**

**And finally before we get into the actual end notes, my thanks. My first would be of course to my beta reader PokeRescue18. Seriously man, thanks once again for the great work that you've done proof reading this and I seriously want to thank you for all the effort you put in.**

**Also to you, the reader. Without you I don't think this would have been possible so revel in the fact that this entire project exists because you allowed it to do so. So thank you for your support and I hope you continue to read and support me along the way.**

**And finally to the person that allowed me to write this with their permission as this was a 'request' technically; Master Knight. You might have been reading this and thinking "Hang on, isn't this similar to that story 'Kamijou Touma: Civil Harem War'?". Well you'd be right, the idea behind both of them is the same however it was Master Knight that PM'd me and requested that I do this for him before he did the same himself. He owns the idea, I merely got inspiration from him to do the same so I seriously want to thank him for allowing me to get this idea out there for those that wanted to read it. Check out his story, it's similar in terms of plot line but different at the same time so if you wanted to see more of this sort of stuff, check it out. I don't compare the two because we both have different writing styles but I hope that you like his work if you check it out and truly enjoy it like you did with this.**

**I decided to treat this more like an episodic sort of structure as you can see. I think for those that have forgotten (how could you?!) what happened given the last time this was updated; it allows you to just jump in right away with the key points so you don't feel as though you are missing out much. Thus the 'Last time on….' bit at the beginning. Hope it fit well and that you didn't feel as though you had to re-read the first part. If you did anyway, welcome to Part 2! I hope you enjoyed it.**

**And now the end note (which technically I said would be short didn't I?).**

**Really regretting choosing not to do long parts down here, otherwise, I'd have spoken about Misaki's own desire here and how she wants to move past from where she is right now. I felt as though the shitty status quo that she has to put up with is unfair to her so I wanted to allow her some redemption and hope for a bit.**

**Sort of the point of what I'm trying to do here is give a larger picture with the girls that are the focus for each chapter. While last chapter was more of a scene setter, it turned into a Mikoto chapter really quickly and looked at her desires to reach Touma first. Then we switched over to Misaki and looked at her desires to reach Touma first. All of the girls inside Raildex as a universe have really strong personalities and characterisations so I felt as though simply 'choosing one' would never do them justice. Hence The Rumour tends to look at the mentality behind each of the girls; their reasons for why they want to reach Touma first.**

**Primarily (even though this is the second part I think this would go at the end of the project but whatever) what I'm aiming to do is create 'candidates'. I want to create an atmosphere where you have an idea of who the next girl is going to be but not the underlying inner reason for why they are chasing after Touma even though you might have a clue. I delve into that reason a lot mainly because I want you to start thinking "Actually, I want XYZ to reach Touma first because of ABC reason!" despite you feeling the same thing for the girl focused on in the last chapter.**

**Despite Mikoto's reason for wanting to reach Touma first (I hope it was something you felt was believable) I wanted to do the same for Misaki. So last chapter (if I managed to reach you with my words correctly) you should have been thinking "Reach him first Mikoto!" but now you also have "Reach him first Misaki!" inside your mind. Then when they battle you have this inner turmoil of "WHO DO I WANT TO WIN?! They both have great reasons and I can't simply accept one of them losing!" That's the point of this project I've felt from my end and sort of explains why I ended up going into detail about the feelings of the girls involved.**

**Maybe I'll do a proper end note for the last chapter of this?**

**And Birdway takes the stage (with some Kumokawa action too as well as a serious fight between Level 5s with some Ten Legs and RPGs)! It wouldn't be A Collision of Magic and Science otherwise would it, as said in the title. But you can really get a sense of the chaos to come just from this second part. Although technically, you should notice something just a TINY bit off with this picture. Can you see it?**

**I hope that you look forward to the next part.**

**And as always  
Review if you please.**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**To Be Continued…..**


	31. The CONS of a Forgotten Childhood II

**Well, now that we've gotten past another original chapter, we return with the requests. For those that read the previous one of these, you should know what to expect. After all, this is another chapter of CONS.**

**COMMENCE THE SUFFERING!**

**For some reason, writing these really struck a chord with those that read it and once more with PROS. I guess I felt something twinge in my heart when I originally wrote CONS and was hoping that it would strike a chord but I did not think that I would be re-writing another part so soon! For those that are reading this, please withhold the feels until after the entire thing is solved.**

**If you can…**

**This request then comes from Guest, who asked:**

:I like these childhood chapters. Hey, maybe you could do one that highlights his first day in Academy City. I think he was pretty young when they moved him there.

**Thinking about this, if you want to get the greatest amount of feels though, you have to keep in mind the catharsis that was reached for Touma and discussed in the first PROS. I guess thinking about that and keeping it in mind will only make the feels in this chapter all the worse but I hope that you like it regardless. And it'll make the first hell of NT 9 all the worse too….**

**But let's deal with the usual Q &amp; A:**

**whwsms: Well while the person who started the rumour is definitely going to be addressed, I do feel as though the chaos surrounding the girls is the focus rather than who started it. But it will definitely be an important point later on so keep it in mind! And also, thank you for the suggestion for Mitsuari Ayu! I definitely want to include her so perhaps I'll manage to fit her in somehow….**

**wildarms13: Yes! It's just as you surmised. I'll be changing the perspective each chapter of The Rumour to match the new person that will be involved so wait for Birdway's perspective next time! I've already written it but haven't proof read it yet and the like so I hope you await that chapter in the future! And yes, while I do feel as though it would suit things better as a 'new story', if you want that I would suggest going to Master Knight's story for this called 'Kamijou Touma: Civil Harem War' which is a similar idea to The Rumour. And thank you for your kind words.**

**Xcalated: Thank you for that! I'll make sure to keep things to your expectations so look forward to the next chapter of The Rumour!**

**Guest: Well I already have the ending for the last chapter's overall storyline in mind so it's just all about reaching there. Still I'm glad that you enjoyed Misaki's part last time and that you look forward to the next parts as well when they get posted! As for whether she and Kumokawa will team up….I haven't gotten that far so it's entirely possible to go both ways.**

**Agent Nine: Hahaha! Of course there's a Part 3 for this! And those ideas definitely have merit but I think that every girl raiding Accelerator's place if Touma is hiding out there MIGHT make a particular Level 5 upset. Although when Lessar appears…..! As for the destroyed school, I don't think Touma will be blamed. After all there were plenty of witnesses that Touma had nothing to do with it so I'll be nice to Touma this time around and not have him punished for it. I'm not THAT mean….although I might be mean every now and then.**

**Anon Guest: Hahaha! I do feel as though depending on how you view it, Otohime could definitely be a 'dark horse'. Maybe that's why I love her character so much!?**

**pop2ww: Yeah, I did want to create a sense of 'individuality' for the different girls. After all, while they might all have the same feelings for him, what they want and what they feel in what way are different for all of them. Looking at their reasons for reaching Touma and why they want to ask him about the rumour focuses on that idea that the all fell in love for different reasons and for different motivations. And I do love shaking things up! As for who spread the rumour….you'll see. I hope you approve when it comes out. As for what I meant when I said the story was 'non-canon' to ACUL0 is that while the storyline and events are canon for ACUL0 up until Chapter 76, the events of The Rumour have NO effect on what happens in ACUL0. Hence while the relationships and events are canon in that what happened then in ACUL0 happened in The Rumour, the events of The Rumour do NOT happen in ACUL0. Thus the relationships formed for Touma are canon to Chapter 76 of ACUL0 but the events do not affect ACUL0 in The Rumour. The relationships follow up to where I said though. Sorry for the confusion and I hope that cleared things up for you.**

**Darren Hersham: This guy was strange. Primarily, the only time that he 'appeared' was in his Knight's armour which is similar to what the Knights of England where in the canon of the Raildex universe. So whenever you saw him appear, it should have had that image to him. However in terms of what he looks like without his armour, I envisioned him to be a lot like Seto Kaiba from Yu-Gi-Oh! in terms of physical appearance although perhaps with a less 'intense' face and stance. While he was awfully serious in Kanzaki's arc, I felt as though underneath the armour he would have had a kind face that was unassuming for what he wanted to achieve. So imagine a kind face for Kaiba in that sense.**

**Before we begin though, I'd like to thank three people. The first is naturally PokeRescue18. It might seem as though I do all of the work but it is something that is split between us. So thanks so much man for sticking with me.**

**The next is naturally you, the reader. Without your support things would never have actually reached this stage so fast: we're up to Chapter 31 and I never thought I would reach here! So thank you.**

**And the last one that I would like to thank is of course the anonymous Guest. Many people thought that I was crazy (or a downright sadist) for wanting to do another part of this and I hope that this sort of thing is what you are looking for. Although given the setting and request, I'm not too sure….Well whatever.**

**I did another part of this so everyone hold back the crying if you did so in CONS is comparison to PROS! And if your first thoughts reading the chapter title in the bar were "You bastard, you sick bastard" then I suppose that would be the 'right' answer.**

**I'm actually quite worried that my Touma sadism tendencies will end up causing him heap and heaps of suffering in the future so I'll have to watch out for that~!**

**And I hope though that you enjoy…..or whatever you're supposed to do in this particular series of two-shots.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

Something That Never Mattered To Him, Past or Present. _NEW_PLACES_Side_A._

"Come on, we can't get out this way. We need to go out the back!"

Kamijou Touya spat out those words in a silent voice as he slowly looked out the blind that revealed the outside of his house.

The entire house had its lights turned off and everything that led to the outside was covered with some kind of object. The curtains were drawn and windows were covered with different types of blankets, making the entire house extremely dark.

Touya himself had his voice low however it wasn't because he was trying to emulate those spy movies that he had brought over from the United States after business trips every now and then to see with his family.

It was because of _them_.

Those _fucking _reporters.

Touya and his wife, Kamijou Shiina both knew that they had been outside since morning, like hyenas in front of a prey's den that would pounce as soon as the prey tried to determine if it was safe to go outside. Every time Touya and Shiina poked their heads out from the blinds or curtains a tiny bit, cameras would go off in their face even through windows and blinds.

Touya and Shiina had done nothing wrong but that was not the reason why those reporters were here.

No, they were here for something else entirely.

"But Touya-san, they are probably out there too!" Shiina basically said that in hushed tone however the fright that was in her voice was something that was evident.

"That's why we're going to go out the front before Touma goes out the back. That way, they'll be drawn to us instead of him. Have you got something that we can cover with a blanket that might look like him?" asked Touya as Shiina's eyes went wide.

Not because of the suggestion.

But rather because it finally hit home that what they were going through was really happening. That this wasn't a dream and that everything was actually happening to them right now.

They had discussed it ever since Touma had come home from the hospital yet the two of them gave their son sideways glances as they spotted him standing right in the middle of the hallway.

"The back?"

He asked that casually as he turned his head that way, trying his best to have a light tone however that in itself was destroyed by the sight of the boy himself.

His face was pale and his usual gelled hair was shooting off in its spiky fashion in the usual places. Yet only on one side. It wasn't that he had been careless when applying the gel.

But rather the sling that his arm was in and _part of the blade jutting out of his chest _made it impossible for him to move that arm properly.

It had happened only days prior, when Kamijou Touya had, for the first time in his life, almost murdered a man.

The day when a man that had fallen into debt blamed his son for his own misfortune and come at him with a knife. He had plunged it into his shoulder yet the size of the boy and the size of the blade meant that when the blade had flown through the air and pierced the body of Kamijou Touma, it had gone straight through one side and out the other.

Blood had gone everywhere and Kamijou had collapsed to the ground, unable to even scream as the man had tried to bring out the blade and go in for a second strike while straddling the boy underneath him.

Touya could see it now in his mind's eye as the man had held Kamijou's head in his hand, gripping tighter as Kamijou had his face planted in the dirt. Blood had covered the right side of his face and his eyes had shown nothing but surprise and shock. He wanted to scream, to cry and yell out however even that basic human instinct had been robbed of him.

And worst of all, Touya remembered seeing the look in his son's eyes as the man had tightened his grip on his son's head.

Acceptance.

As if he had understood and accepted that this was his fate.

That he had accepted that he could never be happy.

That he accepted that something this painful was him getting off easy for the crime of existing.

His tears had dried up and he hadn't even cried, only showing surprise and shock yet somehow acceptance.

It was horrible, seeing that childlike innocence tainted by something so vicious and cruel.

But even so, Kamijou Touma had managed to move his mouth as soon as he saw Touya's expression as the man watched his son pierced by that knife.

And they slowly…. ever so slowly…. managed to form two words.

'I'm sorry'.

Not 'help me' or 'make it stop'. There was no crying, screaming or yelling.

Only 'I'm sorry'.

It was then that Touya truly felt as though his mind had snapped as he had lunged at the man and torn him off his son, beating him within an inch of his life before the police had arrived. They had assessed the scene yet those bastards merely watched the bleeding boy underneath them and wrote off the incident as 'misfortune'.

Both Kamijou and the debt riddled man found themselves in hospital with the debt riddled man discharged with bruises and a court hearing in the next few days for his actions after being arrested.

And Kamijou Touma, true to form, had received none of that.

Where the man had stabbed him, in the right shoulder angled in such a way that the blade went near the middle of his back; had almost severed his spine. His lung had been punctured and it was a miracle he was even alive (or was it misfortune given the amount of pain he was probably in now) but the way that Touya had shifted the blade when he had tackled the man off Touma meant that it was impossible to fully remove the blade given current medical technology.

The surgeons had managed to get the hilt out from where it had been poking out of the boy's shoulder. His wound had already sealed up and there would be no removing the scar that had formed along his right shoulder, leading down to the middle of his back.

But they couldn't remove the rest of the blade, which was going through his body and sticking out of his chest. Using current medical technology, such a procedure would cut major arteries. To avoid that and to avoid touching the dangerous blade altogether as doing so could cut those arteries when the blade shifted position inside of him, Kamijou Touma would be stuck with a blade sticking out of his chest for the rest of his life.

Yes.

With _current _medical technology.

But there was a place, in Western Tokyo, known as Academy City.

A place where it was said that technology there was 20 or 30 years better than the rest of the world.

Not only that, it was a City of Science.

If Kamijou Touma was sent there…. then it was possible that that City could save his life without endangering it further.

Not only by removing the blade that was poking out of his chest and removing any sign of a scar that would be present there but also by making Kamijou live in a place that was ruled by Science. Away from superstition and the occult. Away from concepts such as luck and the like.

It was possible that by living there, Kamijou Touma would live a life that would allow him to be happy, where he would look back at the past few days and think that what he had thought when he was stabbed was wrong.

That he was a life worth treasuring, if only for the two people that had given birth to him.

But it seemed as though other people wanted Kamijou Touma's life to be treasured as something else.

**God of Plague stabbed**

**Life of the Plague**

The respective newspaper article and proposed TV show had instantly attracted the attention of freelance reporters wanting a quick scoop. And that thought boiled Kamijou Touya to the bone.

The local newspaper had made Touma's stabbing seem like it was not even front page news, the council's sewer reforms making the front page while the stabbing made it to page 6. No one had cared and it was clear in the cheap font and the way that the article used words that made it seem as though Kamijou had incited the entire thing.

And then there had been the television show.

Those damn producers had come to this house with their cheap smiles and smart suits, offering compensation just so they could do a 24/7 airing of the boy's life, posting it on national television so that his misfortune could be the laughing stock of the nation.

So his _suffering _would make the entire world happy, leaving Kamijou with the position as the God of Plague or Pestilence.

It filled Touya with a rage that he could not describe.

And more than that, seeing the smiling face of his son when his anger showed only made it seem as though Touya had been stabbed in the back.

His son wanted everything to be OK, yet it could never be the case. Not with the freelance reporters outside, not with his misfortune and not with the life that he was living here.

So, his parents, the ones that he loved so much, had only one choice.

To send him away.

Touya was angry and pissed at everything. But if anything, the one that he was angriest with had to be himself as his son walked towards the back door in order to wait for his parents as he got his stuff together.

They had explained the entire thing to him, how they had managed to get an operation for the boy in Academy City and that he was to live there indefinitely until things here sorted themselves out. However, Touya knew the truth, as did Shiina.

And it was obvious that Kamijou did as well.

But…. even though that was the case he still smiled and tried his best to make everything OK.

Yet, that wasn't even the end of it.

The reporters outside had been there for days meaning that the Kamijou family had managed to make their plans about what to do for a while. There had been shouting when Kamijou had suggested the easiest option but in the end, it was the only thing that they could do.

Kamijou had been the one to suggest it, so neither Touya nor Shiina had to feel bad about the suggestion and what they were going to do to their son.

In a way, by suggesting it, Kamijou had tried to save them. He had smiled and tried to think things out and when he did, he was the one that was sacrificed. He was the one that was thrown away and the one trampled underfoot.

The fact that he had accepted that had been the most horrible thing of all. Even worse was the fact that his parents had been talked into it as there was nothing else they could do.

They weren't going to fly Kamijou into the City. The wall was closer meaning that a good half a day's walk would get them there. They had been mailed their permits to get inside however only one was going to be used.

After all, those reporters had been outside for days. Touya and Shiina knew that the numbers meant that they would never get past them in the car meaning that the only thing that they could do was have someone serve as a distraction and provide Kamijou enough time to escape out of view.

Having one parent escape outside would be too suspicious and people would surely question it.

Meaning that _both _Kamijou Touya and Kamijou Shiina had to make their way out of the house as the distraction, leaving Kamijou as the one that was to make it to the City by himself.

In order to prevent him being recognised, he would have to sneak his way into the City, _half a day's walk away_, with a knife blade poking out of his chest. He couldn't catch public transport or ask for help from anyone: people would recognise him on the bus and Auntie and Uncle Tatsugami had taken a trip overseas with their daughter.

Whether that was entirely true was unknown but Touya and Shiina didn't blame them. They wanted no part in this yet here it was in front of them. A hell that had been brought on by their son that they would throw him into.

"Touma-san, come here." Shiina said lightly as Kamijou did as he was told, walking to where his mother was as she placed her hands on his shoulders, trying her best to look at her beautiful son's tainted face.

Tainted not with the blood of others but with the silent burden of making sure that everyone was alright, that everyone was saved. Even the people that spat at him and desperately wanted to push that blade in his chest a little deeper.

"You know what to do right?" she asked to which the pale faced boy only nodded.

"You want me to be careful and when I get to the City, someone is going to pick me up." Replied the boy perfectly as he recalled something that his parents had told him.

"Your dorm is still being decided on by the administration but I'm sure that when you finish your surgery that everything will end up turning out OK. After all, they have the best technology in the world!" Touya was the one that said that however the light hearted tone that he was making was something that was obviously forced.

What else could it be though?

What Kamijou Touya and Kamijou Shiina were doing was basically sending their son off to a new place yet they weren't coming with him. In order to fully protect him, they needed to be apart and that it turns meant that the boy would be alone when facing the terrors of the future.

Alone.

What did Kamijou Touma think of what was happening right now? What were his thoughts on the matter despite the necessity behind them?

Kamijou himself had never said anything and his silence only made his parents that more worried. He had bottled everything up, his pain, his suffering and would never let it out. He kept it to himself, shouldering a burden along with his misfortune and never wanted to give it to anyone else.

He was enduring but the weight of such a thing was pushing down so hard on him that it would eventually result in him being crushed underneath its weight. That much was certain.

"D-Do you think that it will hurt?" asked Kamijou, fidgeting slightly as he looked down at the blade that was poking out of his chest.

Shiina immediately moved, lifting up Touma's head with her hands in order to make sure that he didn't look at the object that had pierced into his chest for too long and fall into despair. She once more gave that light smile as she spoke.

"I'm sure that it won't Touma-san. You're a brave boy and don't let anyone tell you different. Write to us every day you hear?"

They avoided the basic issue and it was clear that they were struggling. Everything that they had to say had been said last night in their last dinner together yet the silence that existed between the family members now was something that they did not want to have right now.

Kamijou merely smiled at that and responded to what his mother had said.

"Of course! I won't forget to write and I'll be sure to do so every day! And make sure that you do too." Kamijou said as his parents tried to control their own trembling lips at that smile.

They loved that smile. It made their day and it was something that they wanted to keep in their lives no matter what yet they were sending it away.

What did this look like to Kamijou Touma right now?

He had been stabbed viciously and had a blade poking out of his chest. The surgery would have to be expensive so he was being sent away to a different City in order to get it, a City that he was to live in for indefinitely. Although his parents had said that he was sure to come back, they all knew that Kamijou was never to return to this part of Japan anytime soon.

In the eyes of adults, what they were doing was logical. In order to protect their child, the parents had to make the hard decisions and this was merely one of them.

But to Kamijou Touma right now and his child-like mentality, what did this look like?

He had been stabbed and now he was being sent away. The stabbing must have been the straw that broke the camel's back and Kamijou was being sent away because his parents could not handle him anymore. They were abandoning him to the world because he was filled with misfortune.

Those two people that he loved, the _only _people that he loved had had enough.

They had had enough of seeing the boy called Kamijou Touma, willing to send him away so that they would no longer have to associate themselves with him, as their son. They were throwing him out, getting rid of him like an infectious disease, all to make their own lives better and calmer.

Kamijou Touma was being abandoned merely because of his misfortune.

He had said that he loved his parents and they had returned that love.

But only to a point.

They had gotten fed up and wanted nothing more to do with Kamijou Touma.

They were sending him away because they no longer wanted him to be their son.

That was what it must have looked like to Kamijou right now yet he still managed to make that smile and promise to write, only with the promise that they would write back. He understood that things had to go this way yet at the heart of the matter, there was no way that he didn't have those dark thoughts within his mind.

Kamijou Touya and Shiina were constantly haunted by that one thought and had reassured Kamijou at every moment that they could get. That they loved him and this was for his own good, for his own life.

He had always nodded and said that he understood but that smile that he gave them seemed so pained that they felt as though there was nothing that they could do to tell him different.

The world had abandoned the boy and fate, for lack of a better word, had made Kamijou its bitch. He had been cast into the abyss of human darkness with the only light being the love that he got from his parents.

But even that was wavering right now and soon it would be out of reach entirely.

"You tell us how everything goes, the moment that you are out of the hospital, OK?" said Touya as he knelt down to his son as the boy merely nodded once more.

"You already said that Dad." Kamijou replied in a calm voice as he once more gave that smile that only seemed to torment his parents.

Why…..?

Why was it always like this?

Why their son?

Why did their son have to be the one that suffered like this?

It wasn't fair.

But he didn't say anything. His tears had dried up and he never yelled or screamed at the world for hurting him in this way. He merely accepted it and took the pain at face value, as if it was nothing more than standard.

Touya didn't know why he did what he did but looking back, maybe it was to satisfy his own selfish being but he placed both of his hands on Kamijou's shoulders and looked him straight in the eye.

"Touma…. you can let it all out you know. There must be something that you want, a feeling that you want to release. There is nothing wrong with letting it go. You're a brave boy but enduring doesn't mean that you are always strong. Sometimes you have to just let it out. And you can tell us anything. You know that right?"

Shiina looked shocked at Touya and even he felt sick to his core. What was he doing? Telling Kamijou to let it all out right now? He knew that maybe, if he gave support to his child that Touma might feel as though Touya was a proper parent, but even then, what Touya had said only served to satisfy himself.

'My child cried and I supported him, so I was a good parent'.

'I supported my child when he was hurting so there is nothing wrong with my parenting'.

Those thoughts had gone through his mind and he had voiced them, still realising that they were sick, and that Touya perhaps was the sickest one for voicing them in the first place. But he still wanted to say them, if not for himself but for Kamijou as well.

Wasn't there anything that he could do as a parent? Did Kamijou not want anything as a child? He merely smiled and passed everything off but was there something else hidden within that? A small desire, the chance to yell out in despair and truly let things out?

Kamijou had always kept things inside but the pressure had to be building up. Was there nothing that he wanted to do, say or scream out? He merely kept that smile on his face, not saying anything that suggested that he was hurting.

But he must have been.

There was no way that it was not the case.

Only a few times as a baby had Touya and Shiina ever seen Kamijou cry. Yet as he got older he grew out of the habit, receiving pain and suffering yet never shedding a tear or voicing a desire for the pain to stop.

Even though he must have had that desire within his human heart.

"Dad, what are you-?"

"Touma, what do you want? Right now, what do you want? Do you want this? You never said anything but if we are doing something that you don't want, we can stop at any time. What do you want Touma? You…. can tell us you know."

Touya realised that he was treading on some thin ice but even so, as a parent he knew that this was something that he had to say.

Kamijou though only tilted his head.

"My thoughts…..?"

"Touma-san…..your father is right. We never asked what you want. You know that this is for your survival….but what do you want? You never said anything and only smiled but what do you want right now?"

Shiina asked the boy as he opened his mouth, turning his head down as he instinctively looked at the thing that had caused him so much pain. They couldn't see his face but even so, there was a small trembling as the boy bit his lip.

"I….."

Both of his parents waited for the words that were to come from his mouth. They had rarely ever heard him say anything about his own feelings so receiving what he was to say and making sure that they didn't step on his feelings was the most important thing to do in this situation.

"I….."

They silently waited for the words that were to come as Kamijou let out a soft voice with his head down, covering his eyes with his bangs and only showing his mouth.

"I don't want to go."

Both Touya and Shiina went wide eyed at the few words that Kamijou said.

"I want to stay here…with you. Because I love you. I don't want to go….."

Shiina's lips trembled as she opened her arms to embrace her son however realised a very basic point.

_The part of the knife jutting out of his chest._

The one time that Kamijou Touma had had a heartfelt wish and there was no way for his parents to support him or comfort him. If they embraced him they risked the chance that they would push the blade in further, causing irreparable damage to their son's body. They could not even embrace him, only giving words when what he needed was warmth.

Warmth that had escaped him when he needed it most, because of his misfortune.

The motherly instincts within Shiina were forcibly held back as she fell to her knees, covering her face as tears came from her eyes and audible cries from her mouth. Touya looked stunned at the realisation however at the end of the day, a simple thought came to him.

Even though Kamijou could have interpreted the situation as being one where he was abandoned, the one thing that he wanted to do was stay with the people that knew loved him. He didn't hate them or curse them for what they were doing, instead wanting to be with them even longer, to be a family even though they were not perfect.

But he wasn't even allowed even that.

Touya wanted to say something however felt as though whatever he would say would never come out as he knelt next to the crying Shiina as Kamijou had his head still hung down. His small fists were clenched and his lip was trembling yet Touya could do nothing, only holding Shiina closer to him as Kamijou could only watch and do nothing.

Shiina's cries echoed through the dark house as Touya embraced her, the only person he could as Kamijou was silent, and trembling as the small gap that separated parent from child seemed so large.

There was no warmth.

Only a cold feeling sweeping through them as the shouts of the reporters outside grew louder due to the commotion that was happening inside the house.

But those cries still continued as the entire family could do nothing to hold back the cruelty of the world that surrounded them.


	32. The PROS of a Forgotten Childhood II

Something That Never Mattered To Him, Past or Present. _NEW_PLACES_Side_B._

It was the wind generators that seemed to be the most futuristic thing in Academy City when Kamijou Touma thought about it as he wandered through the streets of District 7.

Or at least that was where he hoped he was but given his misfortune he could not be too sure.

The small boy looked at the map that he had in his hand, noting with relief the lack of a blade in his chest. He instinctively touched the area, feeling the hard bandage underneath but noting that when he had woken up and the blade had been gone, there hadn't even been a scar, unlike the one on his back, going from his right shoulder to the middle of his back.

The front of his chest was pristine, seemingly untouched but in complete contrast his back had been torn into, leaving a horrible mark in its place. It was an odd feeling but Kamijou felt as though the longer he stared at his back, the more and more he adjusted to the sight of the scar despite his initial cringe. It was something that he would have to live with his entire life after all so he figured getting adjusted to it now was the way to go.

While the bandage itself was apparently lined with some sort of material to help the wound inside his body heal a bit faster (there had been some technical mumbo-jumbo about allowing blood flow to move faster so he could get feeling to the rest of his body a lot quicker) he still felt as though it was unnecessary.

Still as he looked up from the map that he was holding, he only realised where he was.

Academy City.

The City of Science.

He had heard that sooner or later, after he got adjusted to things here, he would have to take the Power Curriculum Program. The frog faced doctor that had operated on him had told him that it was a simple procedure even though the details were not told to him but from his own misfortune he truly hoped that it would be simply that instead of leading to more misfortune.

It seemed as though by joining the Program, he would essentially become one of the famous espers of Academy City and it was through such a program that he would attain get money, gained through his respective Level and the amount of research tests he would be subject to. Knowing his luck, chances were he would end up with the lowest rank of Level 0, but not only that, be the lowest of the low.

The weakest of the weak as it were.

It didn't bother him so much as the small boy simply sighed.

"Such misfortune….." he mumbled to himself as he looked back down at his map and then back up. He had used certain landmarks to get his bearings but in this futuristic City he felt himself being distracted more than anything which in turn meant that right now, he was inevitably lost. A monorail that was not on his map ran overhead and a number of cleaning robots were moving here and there.

It was a surreal sight yet at the same time, the small boy could only look at it with disdain.

He hated the sight of those robots, merely because it had been this City that had taken him away from his parents. He knew that the thinking was childish but right now, the only thing that he wanted to do was go home.

He didn't want to be here.

He just wanted to go home to his parents. To his Mum and Dad that truly loved him.

But just as his entire life had gone so far, nothing went his way. Nothing ever kind was shown to him by others and even his parents had started to dish out pain to him.

But that was just how things had come to be. If anything, _Kamijou Touma accepted the fact _that the pain and hurt being dished out to him was nothing more than what he deserved.

Still, there was nothing that he could do. He barely had a voice in the world outside of the City so living inside the city felt as though nothing would be any different no matter what he did. Those negative thoughts filled his mind but even so, Kamijou still continued walking through the City, through this New Place that he had come across.

This was his first official 'day' in the City and he was spending it lost.

While he might be cynical of the world around him, fairly so given what he had been through, Kamijou still felt a small smile come to his lips. There was humour in the fact that he was lost but in truth, getting lost now would help him get his bearings in the future possibly.

This was to be his new home after all so, while he knew it would take some getting used to, he knew that what he had to do was love it.

Even if it was a long time coming and even if it was a slow process, Kamijou Touma still felt as though he had it within himself to get used to this City that was to be his home.

He was only a child yet that oddly mature thought came to mind as Kamijou used the most obvious landmark on his map in order to get his bearings and confirm that he was indeed still in District 7.

The large Windowless Building stood tall near the boy as he looked up at it, wondering what lay inside. It seemed as though it was a building that one would stay inside in order to escape from the world so Kamijou felt an odd connection to whoever was inside the Building in question. Did they create that building for protection? Was there something about the world that they hated and thus holed themselves up in in order to escape from?

Kamijou himself stopped walking and looked up the Building in question rather hard now. There was something about it when Kamijou looked closer, as if the Building itself were looking right back at Kamijou. It was an odd feeling yet only more thoughts came to Kamijou as he looked at it.

Who was inside? Why were they there? Why did they not seek to enjoy the world outside like Kamijou himself was unable to? Were they afraid? Did they fear the world?

The small boy found himself asking questions that he didn't know the answer to yet they egged in his small mind. Curious by nature, part of him wondered if the person inside the Building, if there indeed was one, was getting enough sunlight. After all, he had heard from his parents that the sun contained a number of important vita-vitamins (a term he called them which had made his mother laugh) so if one did not get any sunlight then they would not get those vita-vitamins.

Kamijou silently prayed for the person inside the Building as he continued his walk through the City. Since the Windowless Building was over there, something that he was sure he was going to see again in the future given that he was now living here, Kamijou looked back at the map in front of him and walked along the road.

But with that Building getting smaller and smaller, Kamijou felt a nervousness fill him.

This was a New Place, somewhere where he was going to live for the rest of his days, until something changed for him. He had no idea what was going to change, nor how it was going to as he couldn't tell the future.

But one thing came to mind, that same fear that he had considered when thinking about the person in the Windowless Building.

While he had wanted to stay and look at it a bit longer so he could try and figure out how it worked, he had his own agenda to attend to and own thoughts. One of which being that which was related to fear.

Kamijou was scared, yet not for himself as he faced a new City and the new home that he suddenly found himself wandering the streets of, cars going by like any normal city yet the wind turbines turning giving the impression that this City was far from one.

No, he was scared _of _himself.

Kamijou Touma had seen it, even though he had never told his parents about it.

The look of pure despair on the face of the man who had stabbed him. His entire expression was twisted as if he had seen the devil and he had made that expression when he was looking at Kamijou. It was an expression telling the boy that he was the one that had caused so much suffering and that he was the one to blame for the man's suffering.

It was not an expression that had been limited to the man himself.

He had seen numerous people make that same expression as they hit him, spat on him, threw rocks at him and abused him verbally or even physically. They were all people that truly despised his existence. Kamijou did not hate them.

Instead, he understood them.

Kamijou himself understood how scary his misfortune was. The sight of a motorcycle or car about to hit him, the feeling of dread when a roof tile fell from the skies, the feeling of absolute misery when a bird dropped its excrement on him. He knew the feeling of all that yet it had been a feeling that other people had felt as well when they were caught in his poisonous gravity.

That was why Kamijou understood.

The world hated him because he was the one making people suffer through his misfortune.

They only reacted out of a desire to protect themselves, to make sure that no one harmed them. It was a human thing to do and Kamijou held no resentment against them for that. They merely wanted to be safe, just like everyone else. When faced with something dangerous like another human, they could always be reasoned with or overcome with force.

On the other hand, when dealing with a violent animal, that reasoning could not be used. The only thing to do was use that violent force against them.

Because that was all that Kamijou was to the eyes of the public.

Nothing more than a beast, a demon to be slayed.

And that was why Kamijou did not fear for himself, for the fact that his misfortune could possibly lead to more suffering on his part.

But rather he feared of himself, that his mere presence in this City would cause someone to be hurt, for someone to suffer because of him.

In a way, the only reason people attacked him was because they had suffered because of his misfortune. Their resentment to him was his fault so as he had nothing to say to defend his own actions as a demon, he felt as though the only thing that he could do was apologise.

'I'm sorry'.

Those words were said to those that harmed him because Kamijou had existed, giving them misfortune and caused them to suffer.

He truly did feel sorry. He never once lied when he said those words despite being beaten, spat on and mocked, truly feeling from the bottom off his heart a pressure that he felt would crush it as he saw other people harmed because of him. He truly felt sorry for causing others misfortune and voiced it despite what happened to him but right now, the only thing that he wanted was to be in the warm embrace of his parents.

He knew that the City had tried to be kind. There were a few misunderstandings when he had approached the Academy City gate after walking for half a day (he had lost his luggage due to a hole in his suitcase) seen in how he had been shot by a member of…something-Skill who had assumed that he was bringing in a knife, due to the knife poking out of his chest.

Upon realising that he in fact had a permit to be treated in the hospital, the unconscious Kamijou who had been shot with a rubber bullet, woke up in the hospital with the bandage on his chest and the blade removed.

The frog-faced doctor had been kind to him, explaining what had happened and the procedure he had been through although Kamijou understood none of it. Upon being told that he was allowed to leave given that the operation had been a success, he was allowed to do so which he did.

After all, who knew when misfortune would strike after all.

He had taken the stairs and said goodbye to the kind nurses that went pale in the face after seeing the boy who had a knife in his chest walk out of the hospital as if nothing had happened. They had done nothing to stop him and Kamijou preferred that but even so, Kamijou could tell that they were kind.

And that only increased his desire to not hurt them and distance himself from them.

They were good people, so he himself would definitely feel pain if they were hurt. Everyone wanted to survive and live without pain so wanting to make sure that everyone had the chance to do that was the right way of living, at least from the perspective of Kamijou.

But maybe it was something that only he shared, as someone who had to forgo his own smile in order to make sure that others were happy because of his ridiculous misfortune.

Would he hurt again without realising it? Kamijou Touma did not want to be a monster, he wanted to be kind to people so that they could live happily but if they were better without him, then that was something that Kamijou had to accept.

Right now then….were his parents happy?

They were freed of him so had they finally achieved happiness because he was finally away?

Kamijou wasn't scared that his parents didn't love him anymore, even though he wanted to stay with them.

He was scared that even though he wanted to stay with them, he would cause them suffering.

He wasn't scared for himself in this new City.

He was scared _of _himself, that he would cause someone else pain when he wanted them to be happy.

"W-Well this Kamijou Touma is going to make sure that he doesn't hurt anyone again! C-Come on misfortune. Give me your worst and get it over with!"

Kamijou said that out loud with his arms spread out wide as strangers gave him odd glances. His eyes were closed as even though he had said what he had, the things his misfortune did to him still hurt a lot. Still, Kamijou had the desire to get things over with right now as to make sure that they didn't happen in the future.

He opened one eye a tiny bit and blinked, going rather red in the face as many people looked at him with amusement as he tried to scurry away and avoid their glances. His ears burned but he still tried his best to keep his calm as he wandered down the street and noticed that there were hurried footsteps occurring around him.

Although it was a skill that he had built up because of his misfortune, he had at some point begun to notice when people were rushing around him based on their footsteps. It was obviously because he was walking in the same direction as they were and they wanted to hurry past him that they quickened their pace that he had noticed and immediately recognised the sound of hurried footsteps.

Footsteps that he was hearing right now.

Kamijou instinctively looked up and saw that the people that were hurrying past him were not doing so with frequent glances at him to make sure that he didn't meet eye contact with them but rather glancing at an alleyway that he was near. Kamijou knew that the glances that they were making were to what they were trying to avoid (as many people in the past had glanced at him as they hurried past) as Kamijou slowly peeked into said alley.

Many people hurrying past looked on in surprise at that yet Kamijou did not mind as he peered into the dead end alley.

A large wall covered the end of the alley, blocking any escape from the back as he saw what looked to be two large boys with classical delinquent outfits, standing in front of two high school girls. The girls were holding their bags close to themselves and one of them was trying to be protective of the other by standing in front of her but the fear was shown in her eyes all the same.

"Hey now, we're not going to hurt you. I mean, it's all just fun right? Don't you want to have some fun?"

"Look, I told you that we're already meeting someone and we don't have time to do this!"

"Come on. Please? Don't make me ask twice."

"Senpai….."

The girl being protected by the older girl looked at the older girl with fearful eyes as her eyes turned to face the entrance of the alleyway. She met the eyes of numerous people that were walking past yet they quickened their pace, which was what Kamijou had heard earlier. They all wanted to protect themselves and avoid harm so it was a perfectly human reaction.

But on the other hand, when the girl met the eyes of the small boy Kamijou, she immediately turned away as if to not involve him any further. If she was expecting help, it wasn't from Kamijou who she did not want to get involved in this.

Kamijou though had seen it when she had looked into his eyes for that split second.

Fear.

A small expression that simply said 'Help me' but was not directed at the small boy.

Humans had the perfectly normal reaction of wanting to prevent themselves pain. Kamijou had seen that in full force so he understood that there were many lengths that people wanted to go to in order to protect themselves and those that they cared for. Having seen that fearful expression, Kamijou's own wish to prevent suffering so that people didn't have to hurt anymore was something that filled him.

Kamijou's own misfortune was something that had made others experience misfortune and if there was one thing about him that he hated it was that. It was the fact that other people had to get caught up in his own suffering when they had their own lives to lead and their own happiness to seek.

But Kamijou had caused them pain.

He suffered because of his misfortune. But, as everyone had said _he was a demon so it was perfectly normal for him to do so_. Yet, others had managed to suffer because of his misfortune and for that he hated it.

He had made them suffer and he hated himself for that.

When the only thing that he could do was apologise and endure, he wanted at least to make sure that everyone had the chance to smile even if it meant that he had to throw himself into a ditch and burn, as many people wanted him to do. It wasn't on the scale of world peace but if there was someone in front of Kamijou that was suffering, then Kamijou who wanted to prevent such with everything he had had only one option.

It was ironic and people would laugh at him for it.

He, the demon that had caused so many people pain in the past, had been the rotten existence in the world, wanting to save people when he had harmed so many?

They would mock him and spit on him.

But even so, if that made them happy, if that saved them in a way then Kamijou was willing to take that. Every person didn't want to suffer and he had seen the lengths people had gone to, not to hurt him, but to protect themselves. They had spit on him, abused him and hurt him not to harm Kamijou but rather so that they could protect their own self.

It might have been Kamijou's own interpretation, but that was how he had seen it. Even if he was wrong, he still wanted to believe that the world around him had that small bit of kindness.

They had wanted to smile yet something had made them unable to. And that something was him.

And right here and now, there were people that wanted to smile yet were unable to. By something that was not him.

In that case, while Kamijou could remove himself, and thus make people happy, the only question was how was he going to make these boys leave and thus make these other girls happy?

They had been afraid; he could see it in their eyes.

So in truth, there was only one thing that filled the mind of Kamijou Touma right now.

And that was how to save these two girls.

They were members of this kind City that had taken him in despite his demonic presence and he wanted to make sure that they could continue to stand in the light, with a life that they were proud to lead.

So Kamijou Touma moved.

But not to attack the two boys. While he had faced misfortune, he knew that there was no way that he was going to overpower the two boys. Meaning that he had to take things differently.

Kamijou moved into the alley silently, something that made the two girls standing in the back of the alley go wide eyed as Kamijou got onto his knees. He didn't think that the girls would be focusing on him as the boys talked to them (Kamijou didn't see why they were so scared since the boys were just talking but if he could help them out even though he didn't understand the situation then he was willing to) so he was able to move with ease.

He scraped his right knee on the ground multiple times, doing so lightly until a few scrapes appeared on his skin. It seemed as though he had cut himself a bit too deep and it stung when the boy rose, small droplets of blood leaking from the wound however Kamijou didn't care.

He merely limped forward, doing so and at the same time sniffling in a fake fashion as the two large boys turned around but by that time, Kamijou had already passed them. He suddenly embraced the older of the two girls by the waist and buried his face into her leg.

"Wha-"

The girl started to cry out however it was Kamijou that intercepted.

"Onee-chan! You said that you would show me around but you lied to me! I waited and waited and waited but you never said that you were going to be late!"

The girl seemed rather stunned at what the boy was saying as Kamijou turned to the other girl, holding out the map that had been in his hand (that was now behind the older girl's back) so that she would take it. She did so and as soon as she did Kamijou spoke to her.

"And you, Onee-chan! How am I supposed to find where I'm supposed to go without that map? I fell over because of you so it's your fault! Your fault! I wanna go now!"

Kamijou pulled on the older girl's hands to drag her out of the alleyway while at the same time limping as she blindly followed. Kamijou passed the rather stunned boys with a smile on his face and spoke lightly.

"Thank you Onii-chans. I'll always remember how you took care of my Onee-chans!"

"R-Right."

"Y-Yeah."

The boys seemed taken aback at how fast Kamijou had undertaken the whole thing. If it was anyone else, they might have reacted but seeing the boy's bandaged chest and cut knee made them reconsider their actions as they helplessly watched the boy take their prey away.

Kamijou turned the corner and dragged the two girls away for a bit before turning his head around. Upon seeing that the boys were no longer in sight, he stopped. He faced the two girls fully now as he gave a sort of awkward smile. His knee hurt however it was nothing when he saw the faces of the girls that seemed rather stunned.

"D-Did I do something wrong?" asked Kamijou nervously at them, thinking that perhaps his first instinct to help them was the wrong one however the girls tried to find their voices first and foremost.

"W-Well, no, you really helped us out but…Actually yes! Do you know how dangerous that was kid?! Who knows what those guys could have done to you!" shouted the older girl as she suddenly retracted her hands from the boy's grip.

"Y-Yeah! What did you think that you were doing?!" yelled the other girl, hitting the boy with the corner of the map that he had as he immediately smiled and rubbed the back of his head.

There was something that the older girl had said that had made him able to smile so purely after all. Something that he had felt that he had never been able to do before because of his existence as a being of misfortune.

"Ehehehe. Helping you of course!"

Both of the girls seemed taken aback at that, as they stood rather stunned at the purity and the innocence of the boy in front of them. Adults and people their age had been unable to do anything (more unwilling) yet it was this boy that had helped them out in their time of crisis when it had mattered most.

The two of them looked at each other, unable to say anything as Kamijou held out a hand to the younger of the two girls.

"B-But can I have my map back? I need to go somewhere."

"What? Is that it? You help us and let us go like that?"

"P-Please?"

The girl suddenly retracted her haughty attitude at the puppy dog eyes as she handed him the map. He smiled again and gave her thanks however before he could open the map, the older of the two girls stole it off him again and looked at it, raising an eyebrow.

"Kid, you do realise that you're heading in the wrong direction? You've been holding the map upside down the whole time."

"Wh-what?! No, I haven't!"

"Kid, you have. Can't you see that north is pointing south?"

"H-Huh? That wasn't telling me where I had to go!? S-Such misfortune!"

The two girls looked at each other before turning to the boy and suddenly breaking out in laughter at his misfortune as Kamijou stood rather taken aback at that. Their laughs were extremely light, as if lightened from a heavy load as they both grinned at each other and suddenly grabbed one of Kamijou's hands each.

"Stupid kid. Come on then hero. Let these damsels in distress guide their shining Knight to his elementary school dorm."

"You're definitely new here. What's your name kid?"

The two girls started to drag Kamijou along lightly in order to watch out for his knee as Kamijou responded almost immediately.

"Kamijou Touma."

"Hm….so then Touma-chan, what do you want as a reward from these damsels? Some food?"

"Or perhaps a kiss?"

"Ew! No way!"

The girls let out a laugh at that as they guided the boy to his destination and for a moment, Kamijou felt a smile come onto his own lips as well as he looked into the distance ahead of him.

Whatever the case, this was a new start. A new City and a New Place for him to live out his life and start anew.

Even though he might cause suffering due to his misfortune, there was something here, a small amount of hope that filled him in the knowledge that he had managed to help someone and be thanked for it.

It was something that drove right into his core as the small boy gave a smile despite everything that had happened to get here.

This was his new start.

And, despite misfortune, he was going to make sure that even through suffering, he moved past his fear and made this kind City into a new place for him to live in.

There had been a hellish prologue for the boy, filled with nothing but misfortune but for now, as he smiled he truly felt as though the story of Kamijou Touma could begin in Academy City.

The only thing that had to happen was for the first chapter to be written, opened and read.

* * *

**Finito!**

**Before we get to my actual thoughts on this two-shot let's get into the Q &amp; A. Before we do THAT though, I have to note to some people that the scar Touma gets on his back from being 'stabbed' is something that's not actually mentioned in the canon at all. I mean there's no indication of it and in the anime there's nothing of the sort so having that scar is something particular to just me and my stories. Still I felt as though it would be good to put it in to represent some of his misfortune but seeing people think that it was something canon even though it's not made me smile. I guess the point of these BTL stories is to imagine what happens as things that COULD happen in the canon so if you get the feeling of that I'm really happy! Mind you though I'm not even sure if Kamachi would put a scar on Touma such as the one I have but anything is possible!**

**Q &amp; A though for real this time:**

**whwsms: I'm glad that you thought that this chapter was full of feels! Hopefully I redeemed it! And yes, it isn't fair but that whole perspective only reveals how in his own way Touma is a broken individual, destroyed by his surroundings. He's suffered so much but I really think that his hardship comes from the fact that he considers his pain as nothing more than what he deserves which is really heart breaking in some fashions. Mind you though, last chapter he had that human desire and a single wish so it's possible that WHEN I do anyone of these, that humanity will come across again and make it all the more painful because he suffers and wants it all to stop. As for your suggestion of The Day The World Cried, it definitely smells like a good idea! But somehow I feel as though such a discovery of Touma's painful past (which is still ongoing) is something more suited to ACUL0 where I have characters discover who is and thus also his past. But you've definitely given me a good idea for the future… And thank you though for your kind words! As for the possibility of the scar happening in NT 16 check the note near the top of these notes regarding the scar; it's non-canon and something I made up but I feel as though it could definitely play a role in the canon!**

**Anon Guest: "And you grind him into the dirt!" as John Cleese said. But yes I did feel somewhat cruel given what I did to Touma but you read it anyway so for that alone I am happy. But did you enjoy this chapter for it!? I felt as though the confirmation that the girls made that Touma saved them and the happiness that he got from that when helping them avoid their own misfortune was definitely one of the oases of happiness that Touma deserves. I wanted to avoid dealing with girls that we know that Touma later forms a relationship with merely because in doing so, it shows how Touma actively is trying to make others' lives better without those people endeavouring to make HIS better at the same time. Last PROS I had Touma saved with the connection of his parents so this PROS I had Touma saved by himself in a way by allowing someone else happiness. Maybe next time I do this, we can move towards having someone else save Touma from his misfortune like you suggested? I hope you stick with me for that when we get there!**

**pop2ww: This! I really felt as though you nailed what I was trying to convey in your comments man. At the one point where Touma reveals his inner heart the suffering lies in the fact that the ONE WISH that he wants more than anything, he can't have because of his misfortune. To reject that, to see that Touma is in fact just a normal kid that has been suffering this entire time and that they have never seen his pain, his parents must have been shattered. That and the fact that they can't even embrace him for it which would only add to Touma's wrongful thoughts that he deserves the pain is heart breaking. The reporters outside treated him as nothing more than a convenient story and his parents wanted to hear one thing from his mouth, a single wish or desire, and they got what they wanted. But in the end it changed nothing and only made his parents suffer as well as Touma. Your comments really make my day and I'm glad you enjoyed last chapter. I hope this chapter was somewhat of a saving grace for you then!**

**And now for the 'character description' from ACUL0. This is about Ogiwara Junko who I felt (when looking around) has a character design most looking like Naomi Anderson from Bubblegum Crisis 2033. I felt as though I designed her to be more of an introduction to the Science side again so imagine Naomi with glasses and white streaks through her hair and shorter with a more childlike figure. It was at this point I felt that maybe the enemies because a bit more fleshed out than standard so instead of thinking of the enemy with an 'intense' face like before I had Junko more of a character with 'softer' features to indicate that MINUS is really made up of everyday espers that are fighting against their own struggles.**

**Markoz89: Hi there! I won't be speaking Spanish in my review as it'll be from Google translate…which will thus mean it makes no sense. But thank you for your kind words and I'm really glad that you enjoyed last chapter! As for a Fukiyose chapter….I feel as though it'll be a perspective or a snapshot of how she feels as Touma in a point in time rather than across a long period but I'm definitely game for such an idea! You do have to remember though that I have a bunch of other chapters and requests to deal with but I will definitely get your idea underneath my belt to do!**

**Dragon Rider 66: Is this a request!? And I'm glad you liked last chapter by the way. As for your idea for when the Delta Force first met, it sounds like something that I would do for BTL however if you're asking me as a fan, I truly have no idea how in the world they first met. I mean we all have different thoughts on the subject but it would have to be around when Tsuchimikado first entered the City. A he did so around middle school, it makes sense that Aleister would send him to keep an eye on Touma and befriend him. Not only that but from what Touma has said about Aogami Pierce, it hints in a way that they met prior to Touma in high school. So maybe they met in middle school? It's hard to say but as for their first meeting…..somehow I get the feeling as though it transpired exactly how we know them to be now; something filled with weird comments that went completely out of hand as they ended up fighting each other in the end over something stupid.**

**wildarms13: I'm glad that you liked it! But I feel as though having flashbacks to his character in order to see what he went through is something more suited for ACUL0 you know? But even so, the feels would be strong if I did something like that. Still, having Touma go through this pain only to endure is something that is just as painful as the suffering itself as it means that Touma can never have someone comfort him for it because he doesn't want people to worry over someone like him. Seen like that, it only makes it just as painful right? And I'm sure Master Knight will be glad that you have read his works there.**

**Geust: Well I guess the chapter answers your question? I wanted to avoid having Touma meeting someone that he later comes to form a connection with mainly because by doing that it would mean that Touma has a light shining in his future. I wanted to prevent that happening for this second part but when I get the third part of this up, maybe I'll have something like him meeting someone he forms a connection with later on. But….how in the world would I induce suffering related to the Vending Machine? My mind I swimming for an answer!**

**Agent Nine: Again, the scar in a non-canon idea particular to me but even so the thought that others would have if they were to see the scar in question is something that I definitely want to cover! So thanks for the idea, if I have your permission to use it that is! I think their feelings would be more than just horror though, perhaps a fraction of pity and guilt as they couldn't do anything about it and that they knew nothing of the boy that they thought they knew so well. And if Touma remembered now…..I'm not too sure what he would think. I think he would come to respect his past self a bit more because of how he still saved people despite what he went through but that's just me you know? I'm not even sure what would happen if Touma got his memories back… and having the knife sticking out of Touma's chest! Well he WAS stabbed through the lung so that would have been painful in and of itself but if you're looking for a medical reason why he survived, it's just that the man that stabbed him only grazed his vitals but didn't actually manage to finish the blow. But even so, the fact that he SURVIVED could be considered misfortune and Touma's ability to survive such punishment really is his greatest misfortune. After all, instead of being freed from pain, he had to continue to suffer, was ripped from his parents, never got his wish fulfilled and was sent to Academy City. All because of he was alive. If you want a medical reason why he survived, I can only give 'it missed his vitals' but I think the real reason (or the reason I want you to consider) as to why he survived was because of misfortune, in that his suffering had to continue and to do that, he had to be alive for it to happen.**

**Anon: As I've covered, the scar is something that is writer freedom that I've put in to show that Touma doesn't always get through suffering unscathed. I'm not sure if it's appeared in the canon (we've never seen Touma's naked back before as far as I can recall) but it's never been mentioned or hinted to so no one's going to question him about it….unless I make it so! But yes, that sort of questioning is definitely interesting right? I'm glad that such a good idea has formed!**

**PokkeVillagers: I hope that I gave you the warmth that you wanted, at least to soothe the wound from last time. But yes, everything that Touma went through and all he wanted was to ensure that someone else was happy. That sort of selflessness is one of the reasons why I love him as a character but still, seeing what he went through especially on a prolonged basis really hits hard.**

**Geust's Account: I have no idea what to think about this B-movie idea! It sounds oddly realistic but at the same time has a hint of both seriousness and crack. And as for your question, maybe I'll get in another Interrogation chapter? I'm not too sure how I can write a chapter on Uiharu alone but I'm sure when the time comes and you are thanked in the notes that you will enjoy that chapter. And again, the scar I've written in is something that I putt in to show that sometimes Touma doesn't come out OK from his misfortune so I don't think that it will appear in the canon as there is no proof of it. Still, if you thought it was canon, I really want to thank you for getting into these stories! Mind you though, the scar is canon to ACUL0 but I haven't really delved into it…..**

**I guess for those that looked at the chapter bar and shuddered upon the new chapter, I think that this was the saving grace, wouldn't you say? Personally, I guess you could say that while the last CONS and PROS was aimed to really delve into Touma's life as a whole, there was one event that we all know yet I never covered.**

**And so I did so in this CONS.**

**Naturally this would have been the stabbing of Touma's back before he moved to Academy City. While there is some debate depending on which translation you trust on whether he was ALMOST stabbed or actually, it went the latter route in CONS. Also I've gone this route for BTL and ACUL0 as well so there is a bit of overlap there.**

**For me, having the blade jutting out of his chest was the physical representation of his misfortune as it is the thing that is preventing his parents from embracing him despite their love for him. The fact that I chose that one ending for Touma to reveal his one and only wish in that moment as his parents could not even embrace him without endangering his life even though he wants to be with his parents was pretty heart wrenching. Touma loves them but even then, his wish to be with them can never come true because of that misfortune. Not only that but the one time that he says he has a wish, trembles as he realises that there is something that he wants as a person instead of a Demon, he can't have it. What kind of blow would that have to his person? I've felt as though I touched upon it in PROS a bit where Touma says that it's natural for him to be hurt.**

**As I was writing it, when Touma said "I don't want to go" I screamed "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" and almost thought of punching myself for the line. I felt it had power but what do you think? I think many people felt it was powerful.**

**And then the catharsis in PROS!**

**Here, I guess the message is in 'a new start'. For Touma, thinking that people want to protect themselves means that to make everyone else happy he needs to disappear, much like the climax of NT 9 (well one of them). As such, as he is finally out of the life of those that he has caused pain to, the only thing that is left for him in Academy City is that new life.**

**But even then, the thing that he is worried about is not his overwhelming insecurities and the fact that he wants to go home but rather the fact that he is scared of himself and the possibility that he might harm people. In a way, that might be reminiscent of Accelerator when he was young, but at the same time, I felt as though the two different paths that they take despite their pain divide them as protagonists.**

**Despite all of that though, he chose to reach out his hand to those two girls despite being the demon in the eyes of the others, allowing him that fresh start. In a way then, that choice really ends what was the 'hellish prologue' of Touma's life and starts the 'first chapter'. Keep in mind though that his misfortune didn't simply disappear, just got less severe as time went on but Kamachi never actually gave an indication of WHEN it happened so I could probably do another one of these if I feel like spilling some feels and tears all over the screen.**

**…Actually I started another draft for Part III of this so when it comes up, I hope that you guys are still with me.**

**Amazingly though there were still two points about Touma and his misfortune that I wanted to cover here but didn't as I thought it would end up being too long. So perhaps in the third part, you'll get more feels as I address those two points about Touma and his misfortune that I've noted.**

**So, what did you think? I guess with a second part of this (and all other second parts), I had some expectations to meet so did I do so? I hope that I did and that when you read this two-shot that you really came to understand that Touma's choice to act on his words merely than just speak pretty ones despite the pain that he suffers really starts his own story as the hero that we have all come to love despite the past that he has forgotten.**

**I probably won't update again (for either of my stories) for a while as school is starting up for me again and I want to focus on that but I'm pretty sure that I'll get an update in on both of my projects after the NT 16 translation has finished with my own thoughts on it as well. I hope that you await the next update with eagerness and thank you readers so much for getting to this stage. Also to my beta as well PokeRescue18 for his work here as well!**

**And as always,  
Review if you please.**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**Young Touma rejected the kiss so current Touma would have probably beat the crap out of him for forgoing the 'Onee-san' character method of thanks.**


	33. The Nun and Her Keeper

**Once more, we reach the original stage.**

**Looking at the idea that I have for this, I have to stop putting Touma in some kind of pain whether it be physical or simply emotional. I think the latter shows his static character the best but I think that if you want to see what I have as an idea for this, then you need to keep on scrolling.**

**I enjoy talking here a bit too much but as you can see from the chapter title, this is going to be something that is focused on the relationship between Index and Touma. I've probably said this before and done it too but whenever as a whole we fanfic writers are stuck in a Science side arc and want to get rid of Index, we either put her with Kazakiri or have her over at Maika's eating. It's pretty lazy but fits her character so it's convenient and part of me hates the fact that I'll probably do something like it again in the future in ACUL0.**

**I've always wanted to move past from that and show that the dynamic between Index and Touma is perhaps something more than we all think it is and quite strong. In this sense, I want you guys to know that this isn't focusing upon the romantic relationship between the two of them (which is a niche although canon) but rather what binds them. Again though, with my one-shots, it can be interpreted both ways if you want or whatever suits you.**

**You'll see what I mean and I hope it comes off a bit better as it is more in the canon storyline than the Future Kaleidoscope story that I did.**

**Here we have the usual Q &amp; A:**

**whwsms: As for Touma and his recollection of his own preferences, I'm not too sure what to think of it myself, In my head, I suppose the only answer that I can come up with is that his memories lie in his heart right!? And the heart wants what the heart wants right?! Touma is so basic though in his desires!**

**Dragon Rider 66: Thank you very much for your kind words and your suggestion has been taken into account and added onto the pile. For some of the 'first meetings' I think we all have an idea of how they went but in the end, the only thing that I can offer in regards to that would be a non-canon approach to things so I hope that as long as you are OK with this, then I would be more than happy to accommodate your request. Your suggestions are always welcome so don't hold back on them!**

**Amon Guest: Well…..I DO have CONS and PROS III in my head….so maybe we'll get to see a look into why exactly Touma has those preferences installed within him don't you think? Besides, it might be something that will be addressed in ACUL0 as well so you never know what could happen!**

**Markoz89: Thanks once more for your words but take note that while the review was in Spanish, if I were to actually use Google translate to reply then I think that it would become so muddled that it wouldn't make sense. I hope that you can understand for this. As for your suggestion, thank you for sending it in! Your thought on why Touma does what he does and how it moulds him are something that are really interesting so for that alone, I enjoyed reading the review. Seeking acceptance through self-sacrifice and seeing Touma's actions being interpreted through this looking glass really makes one feel bad for him because he has to resort to those types of things from the very beginning because he was isolated and had nobody. Seeing this alone really makes one want to cry out for that small boy right? And since you said that your birthday in late September….well HAPPY BIRTHDAY! It's early but there it is! The one-shot about Fukiyose is in the draft stage and I'm forming an idea but I basically know how it is going to go but it won't be her remembering that she stabbed Touma in the Alpha World. That would be true suffering. I hope you can wait patiently for that new chapter to come out when it does!**

**Agent Nine: Well as for your question, Touma's classmates BELIEVE that he absorbs all their misfortune and it's one of the reasons why he thinks many people are friendly with him; because they think that he will absorb their bad luck and leave them with only good luck. We do know that from the series Touma's misfortunes definitely seem to have 'toned down' upon entering Academy City but when this happens we don't know. The only thing that we can say with certainty is that while younger Touma experienced severe suffering from misfortune older Touma did not really suffer in the same way or as badly. When the change happens and how it does I can't say. As for any ideas that you have, let me state that it would be my privilege to honour your requests. Seeing you enjoy what I have to offer and remarking on it really makes my day so I want to sort of give back to you in that sense. I hope that when it comes out that you can enjoy the chapter fully.**

**Guest: I have a feeling I know what you are talking about with Touma's past but I can't actually identify it from the top of my head…..**

**Anon: I've never seen Infinite Stratos but….from what I know doesn't Ichika go to a school that's filled with only girls? I think that in itself establishes the series as a 'harem series' while Index doesn't heavily go down this route. But as for whoever has the greater chick magnetism I'd say Touma because his misfortune dictates that he'll run into girls and guys needing help because of it. Whether or not they actually fall victim to the Kami-yan Disease though is a different issue entirely.**

**pop2ww: This is exactly the point that I wanted to rise and once again, you have nailed what I was trying to get across. Seeing you understand what I have to offer really makes me happy so I hope that you can share in the happiness as well because you know that you got 'the right answer'. Seeing Touma in this way and seeing the City around him as something that he dislikes only goes to show that his life was the pits. Nothing ever went his way and all desires that he had he could never embrace because of how others and the world treated him. For that alone and that hardship by all rights if he became a delinquent and hit other people out of his anger at the world, then we wouldn't blame him. But he can't hate, wants to help and wants to turn what he lacks onto something that others can gain. There are probably heaps of characters that have the same traits in fiction but Touma is one of the characters that really stuck out for me when it came to this. As for the perspectives of Touya and Shiina….well let's just say that I sort of have an idea that meets this but whether or not you find it to be exactly what you want is unknown. I hope that you can wait patiently for it to come out. And yes, the reporters just moved onto the next story. Unfortunately, that is just how the world works sometimes.**

**Ogiwara Kingo is a character that most resembles Kurz Weber from Full Metal Panic! It might not seem as such given how he was a villain but I designed Kingo to mainly be someone that would be someone like 'a reliable older brother that takes care of his sister'. In this sense, his character and the entire arc of Otohime then focuses upon the idea that Kingo wants to hurt the person that hurt his family. Hence I wanted to give him the impression that as long as you stayed on his good side then he would be perhaps just a normal guy on the outside. So imagine Kurz a bit shorter, with a less mature face and with brown hair instead of blond and you have Kingo. If you have the penchant for it, try and imagine him as a character that completely changes when you piss him off and only that pissed off side of him was shown in the arc hence there might be a bit of a strange feeling in regards to him overall.**

**wildarms13: Thank you for your kind words in this regard! One of the girls though was not Seria I have to admit as they were too old but I hope that in the future that you might hope for something with her from me. And as for Touma being a pessimist realistic, isn't that just Hachiman but in a battle series?!**

**Geust's Account: I sort of laughed when you thought that the scar was canon because it meant that I was able to convey a point with enough realism that you thought it was canon. For that alone I thank you. We know now from NT 16 that such a wound though is not canon but it won't mean that I will take it out all of a sudden because of writer liberty. And I'm glad that you liked the vita-vitamins. I wanted to sort of add in subtle ways of saying that Touma is a child here so I did it through that so I'm glad you liked it. Kumokawa though probably won't appear in these sort of two-shots….Yet!**

**Geust: We won't really be getting a PROS and CONS of the Kami-yan Disease in the future though mainly because the harem antics in the series are usually for comic relief. Doing some true suffering as has been happening in the previous two-shots I don't think I could do well in the context of a harem. But I'd like to know just as everyone else what happened between Touma and Kumokawa damn it! PTSD Touma though is not really for this series but ACUL0…. Also the idea of 'Why do you like Kamijou Touma' is something that is covered more in the Uiharu arc.**

**Cobrahound: Your suggestion…..given how there are 9969 Sisters left and there are 10 in Academy City, that would be a LOT of chapters covering each one and the antics that they get up to overseas. I-I think that if I did it, the chapter itself would be merely a one-shot instead of a 9959-shot.**

**Red Glasses: Maybe having Arisa in those types of situations is paradoxical….but I love her anyway so I don't care! And no, I don't mind you posting anything on the reviews as long as it doesn't cross certain lines. And as for the request, you're probably right; I don't see myself doing something like this haha…. But I can imagine some 8-10 year olds picking up the Indian Poker card and falling victim to the 'Kami-yan Disease' without realising it and trying to catch their Onii-chan!**

**lincoln time: I'm not even sure if I should do The Dream for every single character in the series. I mean….that would take ages you know!? I think that just having those two characters in it for now is what makes it fun though.**

**Before we begin though, I'd like to start off by thanking two people. The first is my beta reader PokeRescue18. You'll find that throughout my projects I have to come up with new ways of expressing my thanks but that's merely because I am eternally thankful.**

**And the next of course, you the reader. For those that have read the canon or the manga and seen the anime, you'll know that Index and Touma was where it all started so I hope that you read this with that in mind. I'm coming full circle aren't I?**

**Before we start though, I've found that my chapters aren't coming out as frequently as I'd like given my own personal life and things that have been happening to me. While for ACUL0 it follows a linear plot line and the wait sometimes means that people forget what happens (thank you for everyone here that reads that project of mine by the way) for BTL it means that people tend to forget that things are request driven in part.**

**What I'm getting at here is that given that I know which request I'm going to fulfil and when, would you guys like me to present you a schedule of the chapters I have for the future? Unlike ACUL0 where that would enter massive spoiler territory given that would mean I would telling you what arcs are next and I want it to be a surprise, for BTL I think I can be a little more liberal even though the surprise would be spoiled.**

**So do you guys want me to put up a schedule for the future chapters? There won't be spoilers within it but basically, it'll be a schedule of whose requests are being fulfilled and in what chapter and where the original stories are going to be located in all of this.**

**For those that want to answer this question…..well your responses are going to be the ones that are added to the total vote. I'll inform you next chapter of the result of whether the list of future releases is going to be up or not though regardless.**

**Thank you so much and I hope that whatever result you guys end up choosing (I leave it up to you), that you wait with eagerness the next chapter.**

**AND GREAT NEWS! NT 17 HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED FOR NOVEMBER! What with Yuiitsu having complete control of the Kamisato Faction and her only command to them being to kill Touma it seems as though the counterattack to save Kamisato will finally begin! Will the Kami-yan Disease work on guys?! I can only tell you that for those that are here that I await eagerly the newest instalment of New Testament and what lies in wait for the future~! Come on Touma. It's time to show this piece of shit world just who you are and destroy some illusions.**

**And from me in regards to this chapter: enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

Tightrope Walking on a Fragile Bridge. _Memory_Avoidance._

While the dorm room usually had a light atmosphere, there was an odd seriousness in the bickering voices that were coming from a certain room on the seventh floor. They were muffled through the door yet at the same time, the heated nature of the yelling coming from the room made it obvious that the occupants were clearly angry.

"I'm telling you Touma, you had no right! This is my own private stuff!"

"And I'm telling you that I _asked _you about this! And you said it was fine! How is it my fault that you're watching Magical Powered Kanamin when I ask you the important things? Besides, you knew that they had to be dealt with!"

Kamijou Touma and Index, the nun who housed 103,000 grimoires inside her mind shouted at each other from opposite sides of the kotatsu. Kamijou's back faced the balcony on the outside while Index's back faced the door and both of their faces seemed to suggest that what they were arguing about seemed unfair to both sides.

Sphynx sat on top of the kotatsu itself, looking in fear at both of its owners while Index made a retort to what Kamijou was saying, her eyes showing just how angry she was about this entire thing.

"Did you even consider that maybe there are some things you just don't do Touma?"

"What was the alternative then Index?! You complained on and on about it, yet your uselessness when it comes to things such as this means that the only one that can do things like this is me!"

"I-I'm not useless! You take that back!"

"Can you fix the problem? This one in particular I mean."

"W-Well no, but-"

"Then you're useless in terms of the problem at hand!"

Kamijou shouted at her while Index seemed rather taken aback before pointing at the object that was inside Kamijou's right hand, the object that had started this entire conflict in the first place.

"Th-That doesn't matter! G-Give me back my panties!"

It was this that was the crux of the matter as Kamijou looked back at Index although with a rather red face as it seemed as though even he understood how embarrassing what Index had said was. Instead of giving it back though, he merely thrust the pair of white panties in front of Index's face, who seemed just as embarrassed.

"It doesn't matter?! It's because of _this _that all of the clothes that we wore yesterday smell like and have soy sauce remains in them! Not to mention that it's because you didn't tell me you spilled soy sauce on _this _two nights ago and just put it all together with everything that had to be washed!" Kamijou exclaimed.

Index pouted at the unfair comment Kamijou had said however in his opinion, the fact that he was being made out to be the bag guy was the crime in and of itself.

It had happened only this morning.

Kamijou had the misfortune of opening the supposedly dry clothes that he had left to wash overnight in the washing machine, only to discover that instead of them being clean, ready to be hung out to dry and perfect they were instead dirty, ready to be served with rice and not perfect in anyway.

Just as he had said, the clothes in question had been stained with soy sauce, something that had been on Index's panties. How in the world she had managed to miss the fact that she had spilled was beyond him yet his cries of "Such misfortune" early in the morning had largely been ignored.

Forced to wash everything by hand in a special concoction (honestly, he felt as though if he had a witch's hat on and a cauldron, he would fit right in with Index) in order to get out the stain, he had asked Index for her permission to wash her panties by hand. Naturally, it was embarrassing as heck but since they were the ones with the largest stain in them given that they had been soaked right in, it wasn't something that he could just give to someone else.

Chances were if he walked up to a dry cleaner and asked them to wash a pair of stained girl's panties, Anti-Skill would immediately be called, him arrested and Index as well as soon as they raided his dorm. Not being a resident of the City as a whole, Kamijou wanted to avoid Anti-Skill from knowing Index was residing in his dorm so he wanted to avoid her gathering attention even though with her nun's habit that in itself was hard.

So that option was out.

Not to mention that if he asked Index to go to the dry cleaners, chances were that she would get distracted or something and end up doing something that would land him in even more misfortune. When he had asked her to withdraw some money from the ATM once while they were shopping, he had been forced with hold back a number of rampaging cleaning robots with nothing but meat on special.

Needless to say, he wanted to avoid such a thing again or something similar so the only thing he could do was wash them by hand.

He had asked her permission of course however, being engaged with Magical Powered Kanamin meant that Kamijou was a secondary thought. Yet even though she had agreed, the moment that she had asked what he was doing while he was outside and saw her panties being rubbed rather thoroughly by Kamijou on the balcony, she had exploded.

Numerous bite marks were located all on Kamijou's face, arms and body yet he had managed to get Index off and the two of them had started their shouting match. The other wet clothes were drying on the clothesline outside but given the icy glares the two roommates were sending each other, it seemed as though it was enough to dry them.

Their expressions and tones only revealed that instead of the stupid fights that they got into over small things, this was something that both parties were properly angry about with the other party. It was rare to see both Kamijou and Index angry with each other but it was happening right here as Index once more rose a point in retort to Kamijou's.

"That's not the point Touma! Didn't you think that I would be embarrassed at having my panties washed by you?" asked Index with anger flaring in her tone, to which Kamijou responded with his own.

"I did! That's why I asked! Honestly, after the Ichihanaransai, I don't want to have to deal with these kind of stupid things! When I talk to you Index, sometimes I want to know that you're listening! If you're looking at the television and only nodding without paying attention, then you really are just a freeloader." Kamijou made that remark as a side note while sighing and putting a hand to his head.

While he used his left hand to do so, avoiding the panties in his right hand touching his forehead, it was Index that took the opportunity to strike back now that she had the chance.

"You see?! You almost touched my panties on your forehead! I want to avoid having something like that happen so give them back. Knowing you, it'll happen without you realising it. I'm properly angry with you Touma and not just about this! You just disappeared and then you think that everything is OK when you get back?!" Index felt her own voice rising at that however the deep emotion within it that was masked by the anger didn't reach Kamijou.

After all, Index had despaired.

She had lost Kamijou once, when the Star of Bethlehem had fallen and she still remembered the pain that had coursed through her entire body when she had thought that he was dead. He had disappeared and she had been left alone and that in itself had hurt more than anything.

But right now, he had come back, only to leave again and return with yet another girl by his side. It was standard Touma and Index had gotten used to it yet at the same time, there was something that had to be addressed.

Kamijou had left and this was one of the few times the two of them had been alone to really discuss what had happened to them after the events of WWIII. Kamijou had left before Index could ask anything and now that the Ichihanaransai was over, it was the first opportunity in days that the two of them had the chance to simply sit down and talk.

Yet, the only talking that they were doing was the type where neither party was listening as they yelled at each other across the room.

"Look, Index this is something that has to be done! We have to deal with this issue and I'm the only one that can do it! And you're angry with me?! Think about how I feel! I had to wash everything all over again with my hands. I swear that this stuff is bad for my skin yet because of you, I had to do it all over again!" Kamijou cried.

"I-It's not my fault that I didn't know the soy sauce would be bad for the clothes washing cauldron! There are some things that you have to tell me about Touma! Honestly, there are just some things that you don't understand when it comes to me."

"I at the very least know that you're useless with everything that's related to Science, you gluttonous nun!"

Index felt something in her temple snap as her expression deepened, revealing a rather large scowl that was facing Kamijou right now. He seemed rather taken aback but instead of trying to calm herself and focus on the issue at hand and resolve it, she instead lashed out verbally back at the boy.

"Y-You always call me that Touma! How is it my fault that whatever you put in front of me is never enough?"

"Because, it NEVER seems like it's enough! You suck in food like a black hole meaning that I have to use what skills I have to get by. My budget is on the edge of snapping as it is!" Kamijou exclaimed rather truthfully however Index merely crossed her arms and looked away with a pout on her face.

"W-Well you're not trying hard enough. Last night's dinner was poorly done if I say so myself."

Index realised that what she had said was entirely untrue. Like every meal that she had with Touma, she had enjoyed it wholeheartedly and it had been more than delicious in his company yet in order to get back at the boy for harming her with words, she wanted to get back at him using the same method. The only thing that came to mind right now given the topic was what she said even though she didn't mean it.

Still, it made her wonder.

What exactly was being said in this argument? They were shouting words and things that they didn't mean at each other but neither party was willing to back down. Sure, what both parties were saying was unfair, but it had been Kamijou who had started all of this. As someone that had incited her, Kamijou got what was coming to him so right now, Index felt as though striking back with verbal warfare was necessary to pay Kamijou back for what he had said to her.

What they were saying was nothing new, but at the same time, the anger and the emotion behind each painful word stabbed into Index's chest, only making her bite back with her own words in response.

It was an endless cycle of repetition with each side sending backlash to the other and it seemed to have no end as Kamijou responded with clenched fists.

"Poorly done!? How about you try making something for a change then!?"

"You know I can't cook! Besides, even if I could, I would never make something for you!"

"I'm happy to hear that. After all, the last time that you presented me with your 'home cooking' I had to be tested for radiation poisoning and had to get my stomach pumped! Do you seek to make my life difficult at every turn? If it's not one thing, then it's another with you. Can't you seriously give me a break and at least give me a day off?"

"How is everything my fault Touma? I'm not the cause of everything that happens to you! It's your own fault for getting into stupid situations time and time again! Do you ever think that maybe, instead of being shot in the side and facing magicians that you can perhaps consult me as a specialist? The way that you do things Touma is no way going to help you in the future!"

Index basically screamed that back at Kamijou, even knowing to herself how unfair what she was saying was. After all, even though she worried endlessly about Kamijou, it had been that method of charging into things that had once saved her. While she hated having to watch him go to hospital with numerous wounds, she wouldn't trade that part of him for the world.

Despite the anguish that she held when she saw him wrapped in bandages, despite the anguish that she felt when she saw him lying once more in a hospital bed, Index knew deep in her heart that Kamijou Touma would always come back to her.

He had proved it himself when he had returned from the dead after World War 3.

But once more, her own emotions got the better of her and she found herself yelling something that she didn't mean back at the boy. Probably the responses that he gave to her was something that he didn't mean either however the heat of the moment meant that they gave no consideration for the other's feelings as they constantly retorted back to each other.

Kamijou's face twisted at that as he threw the panties he was holding onto the ground and pointed a finger right into Index's face in an accusatory fashion.

"Maybe if you weren't always having to be protected and falling behind then I would!"

Kamijou basically screamed that comment into her face. The both of them knew that he didn't mean it, just like the other things that they were saying however their own emotions and heated thoughts got to their heads, making them spit out harsh words to each other that they never meant.

In a way, this was reminiscent of a truly normal 'high school life' however the way that the two of them bit back at each other only made it seem as though neither could stand the other's presence.

"You take that back! When it comes to understanding things Touma, you are the amateur! You're always like this aren't you, going off and doing your own thing and leaving me behind when it matters!"

"When you're like this, then I think I have a pretty good reason to Index! You never help me anyway, you're always asking things from me that I can't give you and time and time again, you bite me when I don't ask for it! Now that I'm on the subject, I'm telling you right now. Those biting attacks freaking hurt! I think that they are all unjustified!"

"Unjustified?! How about instead of thinking how it's unfair to you, you think about why you actually received those bites! Repent for your actions Touma and maybe you'll understand!"

"Don't think of getting sister-like with me right now Index. I'm not in the mood for it and since you are the one that has caused this entire problem, it's nothing more than you trying to avoid responsibility for your actions. Do you think your all-holy God would want that from one of his followers?"

As someone who was an atheist or rather more agnostic given what he had been through, the remark that Kamijou gave truly bit into Index's faith. She believed in God and the boy had never directly called her out on it but it was that faith that drove her, separating her from everyone else in this City of Science.

Sure, it wasn't like she wanted something to stand out, but in this foreign City and land from where she was born, having someone of neutral religious stance criticise her about it really got to her. She gritted her teeth and pointed in the same fashion that Kamijou had to her only moments before.

"That's not fair Touma and you know it! I do my best as a sister of the Church, even after everything I've seen. At least I'm committed to something!"

"What's that supposed to mean!?"

Kamijou spat back however it was Index that immediately yelled out something with closed eyes.

"I hate you Touma."

"That's _fine _with me!"

Kamijou yelled that comment back to her as Index opened her eyes, realising that while what she had said she hadn't put any thought into, she knew it wasn't true. After everything that the boy had done for her, after everything that she had put him through, he was always by her side so she felt as though the words that she had said would be ones that she would regret.

She would never actually hate Kamijou Touma for anything that he would do yet she had spoken those harmful words. If Kamijou had said them to her, she would have likely burst into tears but he had avoided them, perhaps out of kindness or perhaps because he hadn't thought to say them.

Yet Kamijou had not reacted adversely or even retorted with something even more hurtful to what she had said. Instead he accepted it and had shouted in a raised voice back at her.

Seeing that the words that she didn't mean, no…..would never mean, readily accepted, and thus that a certain line could be crossed in terms of the harmful remarks that they spat out to each other, Index didn't let up as she constantly barraged the boy with the same words that she thought she would regret.

The same words that she knew would crush her heart if the boy said them to her. The same words that she would never mean even if the world turned against her.

"I hate you! I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!"

"You can say it as many times as you like and I won't care Index! In fact-!"

"I hate you Touma! The _old _Touma would have never–"

Index stopped speaking, her eyes wide as she realised what she had said. A deathly silence came over the entire room as Index let what she had not meant hang in the air.

The old Touma?

What was she saying?

Index immediately turned her face to Kamijou who she had not been looking at previously, noting that his previously angry expression had changed entirely. Instead of the frown that he had and the anger that was behind it, there was only one expression on the boy's face.

Pain.

His face was low and his teeth were held tight against each other. His fist was clenched tight, the skin turning white from the strong grip that he had yet he was looking down at the ground. He clearly wanted to say something but was unable to, the pained expression on his face something that Index had rarely seen before.

What Index had said had clearly cut deep, to the extent that he had been unable to make a retort based on it. That in itself told Index how much of an effect the words had but that pained expression of his made her own face twist in hurt as well.

The old Touma?

She had brought up something that Kamijou had only come to terms with recently. He had come clean with her about his memory loss and she had accepted it, yet here she was, rejecting that very person.

She had compared the boy with someone that was dead, essentially saying that it was Kamijou's former self that she preferred, not the one that was in front of her.

For Kamijou, someone that had 'lived' for less than a year, how much did that rejection hurt?

Ever since WWIII, when Kamijou had returned, the both of them had stayed away from the topic of the memory loss. The reason was simple: they didn't care about it anymore. Index didn't care about whether or not he was the same person, as long as he returned back home then the only thing that Index wanted was the boy in front of her.

She had accepted him, not for who his memories or mind said he was but rather because of the person that he was in his heart.

He had fallen in love with that very person, even though that 'person' had died. They had both come to terms with that and as a result, they had plodded along with their normal lives, not speaking about the issue of his memory loss in detail. Not only that but with Radiosonde Castle, Hawaii, Baggage City and the Ichihanaransai, Index and Kamijou had not really had that many opportunities to speak about the issue.

Kamijou had just returned home and the only opportunity that presented itself where they could really discuss the issue of his memory loss, despite them staying away from it, and what had Index done?

She had rejected him.

She had said that it was the previous Kamijou Touma that she preferred, not this one in front of her.

The first chance that they had to discuss the issue at hand and as a person, Kamijou Touma had been rejected. He wanted his normal life back but he was being treated as nothing more than a shell, a patchwork person that was imitating someone that Index held dear.

How would that have felt?

Being in the shadow of someone else, constantly watching and moving as they do and after finally breaking out of that shell, finally coming clean and allowing oneself to truly act without hiding anything, to have someone else to tell them that they preferred the 'previous' person.

It wasn't just a denial of them.

It was a denial of their very existence, as if they were something that should never have been born.

'Kamijou Touma' was dead. The previous one at least.

But somehow, Index's rejection of the person that Kamijou Touma was now, given his own confusion and identity crisis that he had faced, was a fate that was worth than death.

It was a cruel comparison, something that Index had never wished to place on Kamijou.

But her anger, the heat of the moment and her own stupidity had gotten in the way of how she had ignored Kamijou's feelings.

And she had hurt him more than she thought anyone else had before.

Kamijou's expression turned away from Index, not out of anger but perhaps accepting that denial of self. 'Kamijou Touma' would never return and the current one that was standing in front of Index was someone that she had just rejected as a person.

How would that have felt?

How much did that strike at the core of his being?

"T-"

Index opened her mouth to speak however the boy merely hung his head, still clenching that fist. It was clear that he wanted to say something however what would he say? He wasn't anyone; not Kamijou Touma, not a hero and not a high school boy.

He was merely a replacement, a _thing _that was never going to be as good as the original.

And with a few words, Index had been the one to say that.

That thought burned into her soul and her memory carved that boy's hurt expression into her mind. Her mouth trembled and tears threatened to well up in her eyes from what she had said however no words came out. Nothing wanted to come from her throat as she felt that Kamijou in front of her somehow seemed extremely far away.

No, did he feel as though he was anyone right now?

Having being rejected, did he feel as though he was less than nothing, merely an existence that had played a part that had proved to be too much?

And it had been Index that had made him feel that way.

Index had been the one to reject him, the person that even after he had lost his memories he had strived to protect and save her from danger.

And the thanks he got from that?

'I don't need you. I want the old Touma back'.

Kamijou hadn't said anything back to her, perhaps out of his overwhelming kindness yet that in itself only made Index suffer all the more. How could she think of herself at a time like this? How could she be so selfish? How could he be so kind?

Index was the villain here and she knew it.

So…in her mind there was only one thing that she could do.

She turned her back and fled, running to the door of the room and throwing it open before escaping into the cold November air of outside, the light rain that had started without the two of them noticing adding to the chill. Kamijou immediately looked up and reached out a hand to stop her however she was already gone before he let it fall back to his side, not going after her.

He clenched that fist, turning his gaze to the floor. He closed his eyes, gritted his teeth and tried to think of something to say however nothing came out and there was no one to talk to.

And the person that was no longer Kamijou Touma bit his lip so hard that it drew blood. A drop of it rolled down his mouth as it was accompanied by the small tear that had come from his eye.

* * *

Index didn't know where she was going as she ran through the rain, only knowing that she had to get as far away from Kamijou as possible.

It was not because he was the evil one.

But rather because she was.

In an effort to at least make sure that he was protected from herself, she had escaped and tried to make sure that the boy didn't have to look at her ugly face any longer.

She knew that she was the evil one in this case. Not only had she run away from the pain that she had caused but she didn't even pause to look at Kamijou's broken heart and face as she rejected him as a person. She had committed perhaps the greatest insult to his character, having the nerve to run away afterwards.

At some point though, she had stopped. The rain had stopped beating down on her, meaning she was indoors yet she did not know the path that she had taken nor the road she had. She had merely run through the rain and although she tried to recall the path back home, her mind was in such a mess that she could not gather the memories.

No, when she thought about it, where did she even have the right to return to?

As an outsider, no one was going to accept her. Kazakiri Hyouka was nothing more than an aggregation of something-or-rather fields. Tsuchimikado Maika was in school and it was likely that Index herself would not be accepted there anyway. The only place that came to mind that would accept her right now was Tsukuyomi Komoe's place however the place where Index had made her way to was not there.

She rose her head and found herself rather surprised at the door in front of her.

The scent of disinfectant and the white hallway she found herself in was familiar. It was the local hospital in District 7 where she had made her way so many times before. She looked at the nameplate next to the room, finding that instead of the usual nameplate that could be taken out to represent a new patient, this one was engraved.

Of course it was.

After all, given the amount of times Kamijou Touma had come here, it was only natural that he would manage to acquire his own private room.

That realisation of where she was though, as Index looked away from the nameplate and back at the door only hit her head on as she struggled to keep her emotions in check.

The current Kamijou Touma would never accept her. He would never take her back in after what she said to him and there was no way that he would be willing to forgive her.

So, the only place where she had found herself was where she had thought the old Kamijou Touma rested after he had saved her.

It had been in this room on July 28th that the boy had lied to her, telling her that his memories had not been destroyed and that he remembered everything. It had been here when Index had thought she had lost the boy, only to discover that it was not the case through his fabrication to protect her feelings.

Although he had lied it had been this place, this room where Index had felt her heart torn to shreds yet at the same time patched back together.

It had been this room where Kamijou Touma had been 'born', yet it was this room for Index that she had met the newly born boy. She had thought he was the old Touma but it had not been the case, meaning that this room had a large amount of significance for both parties.

The villain opened the door to the room silently. She vaguely recalled someone telling her that the boy was not in, however she knew that herself. Index though did not care as she opened the door and walked into the room, feeling the familiar air to it as she walked inside in a daze.

She did not close the door behind her as she walked up to the ever familiar bed, noting how it was perfectly set and made, ready to be used again. It surely would be, Index knew that, but even so, seeing the calm bed when her own feelings were in tatters was the perfect juxtaposition.

It had been here, right in this room where Kamijou Touma had protected her.

She remembered the feelings that she had felt when she had thought that he was lost forever. Recalling it only brought back the pain and the held back tears threatened to come from her eyes as those emotions welled back into her.

Pain, loss, grief, anguish.

All of them came back to her in a wave as she remembered the very first thing that he had said to her face.

_"Did you go to the wrong room by any chance?"_

How much confusion, pain and suffering were in those few words? Index had felt it too, the feeling of not knowing where she was when she had woken up with her own memories erased. But the very least, she had a sense of self, knowledge and purpose that had kept her going.

But that boy….he had nothing.

He had woken up in this room, transparent and only told a story from another person about who he was. And then she had come into the room and he had voiced his confusion. He had voiced his insecurities and asked Index a basic question in order to understand who he was, who she was and what she was doing.

Index had pleaded with him, begging him to remember, to recall anything yet he had not.

Even when he had lied to her and told her that everything was alright.

He had lied to her about his memory loss in order to protect her feelings.

That in turn made a certain emotion of guilt and something else well up within her at the recollection of it, merely because it meant one thing.

In that one moment where Kamijou Touma chose to value Index's feelings over his own confusion, he had sacrificed his own feelings. He had buried his worries, thoughts and emotions under a tough shell, only striving to be the person who he 'once' was. But that boy was dead and there was no bringing him back.

Which meant that in order to pretend to be someone else, he had to forgo his own discovery of his identity.

Who was the old Kamijou Touma? What was he like, what did he do, what were his tastes, likes, dislikes and preferences? He had sought to answer all of those questions. While that in itself was perhaps pure and selfless on his part, it meant that the new boy that was born had no chance of becoming his own person.

In order to protect Index's smile, he had to become a shadow of his former self.

Sure, what he did, he did because he wanted to. He followed his own thoughts, ideals and desires, much of which were the same as the original Kamijou. But in the end, if there was any chance of being different in any way, anything that would separate the new Kamijou from the old, it had been crushed in the moment he had chosen to protect Index's feelings over his own.

In the Star of Bethlehem during World War 3, everything had been revealed in the connection that Fiamma of the Right had with Index. And what had she felt when his lies had been revealed?

The climax of WWIII had been reached, leaving only her and him in the Star of Bethlehem as it began to fall. They had spoken with each other, Index in the safety of St. George's Cathedral and Kamijou in the Russian battlefield.

He had come clean.

He had revealed his own thoughts.

He had moved forward as his own person, with his own choice to follow the old Kamijou but at some point, he had managed to turn those actions and things into his own legend. He had carved his way, not following the path of the old Kamijou but rather the desires of the new. The last loose end that would surely allow him to fully walk on that path as his own person having being born on July 28th had begun with that confession to Index.

He had apologised for stepping on her feelings, speaking words that Index remembered very well.

Yet she had denied it all.

She had told him that as long as 'he' came back, everything was alright.

Because at some point, Index hadn't cared whether or not he had lost his memories. At some point, she had realised that it was merely the presence and the existence of the boy and the connection that they had that she loved so much. Each day was as chaotic as the next as the rules or simple structure went out the window.

She hadn't cared if he was the new or old Touma.

In the end, they were both driven by the same thing and both had the same shining core.

Kamijou Touma, born in this very room, had taken his own path and strove forward. As a result, he had become his own person, even if he was walking in the shadow of another initially and as more and more incidents had happened, he had built himself up as a person.

In the Star of Bethlehem, Index had told him that it didn't matter that he had lost his memories and was essentially a different person. As long as he came back, then everything was alright. If there were any differences or changes, Index wanted to stay by his side forever in order to see them through.

She had made that vow to herself and even after losing his memories and becoming a different person, the fact that Index had not noticed only told her that Kamijou Touma had sought to go down the path the previous one had and make it his own.

He had done so successfully.

Yet in that dorm room Index had denied him in the very end.

She had told him that she didn't care whether or not he was a new person with achievements. She didn't care whether he was the same person. She didn't care that he had been through pain.

The only thing that she cared for was the old Kamijou.

And he was dead.

Which meant that in her cruel desire, she had shunned the existence of the current Kamijou.

How much did that have to hurt after everything that he had been through? Especially for her?

He had been caught up in numerous conflicts, had fought the entirety of God's Right Seat, faced a hell in England and gone to War in Russia, all to make sure that Index herself was safe.

And his reward for that at the end of the day?

A rejection of who he was and his actions.

While he never asked for anything in return and took things where he could get them, his end reward for his pains and troubles was being told that he wasn't wanted.

If anyone else had told him that, he likely would have just left then and there.

However, he had been told that from someone that had said that they would accept him.

Index's lip trembled as she walked up to the bed, bringing a visitor's chair closer to it and sitting next to the bed as she had done many times before. Yet this time was different.

There was no one in the bed, only a memory that Index had of a boy that always smiled to her when he was hurt. Someone that always managed to grin and be happy despite the internal suffering that he was having. Sure, it had subsided in the end and he had reached his own personal conclusion regarding his identity yet that had not been instantaneous.

It had taken time yet whenever he had returned to this place with a stupid smile on his face, he had been suffering.

He could not have been saved yet when Index had accepted him, a remnant of light had shone through.

Yet that had been blackened by her own dark wish.

The memory of the boy sitting there smiling back at her filled Index's mind as she imagined the boy sitting there now, looking in concern at her while he was the one in pain. Always looking out for others and always wondering more about others instead of himself, leaving his own thoughts to the side.

The boy, the same as always whether it be old or new, sat on that bed in her memory. And, as he would, the image of the boy tilted his head in concern as he looked at Index, asking one question that she knew he always would.

_"Is something wrong Index?"_

The image of the boy that she had in her head would have asked that. There was no way that he wouldn't even if she tried to hide it behind one of her smiles. He always saw through them even though she hadn't seen him hurting as he brought a smile on her face.

Index grabbed the bedsheets, trying to reach for a hand that wasn't there as she slowly spoke, her lips trembling.

"I'm sorry Touma."

There was no response, only the light patter of rain against the window. Even though that was the case, she still continued speaking, letting her voice echo in the room.

"I said something I didn't mean to you. I said something that I should never have said. I did something that I shouldn't have done and I….. I can't be forgiven for it."

Index's words were low as she spoke, her head hanging now as she realised that she could not look up and face the image of the boy on the bed.

"You were always smiling. Always smiling despite the pain and the suffering. You cast aside your doubts and worries, never telling me about them…. I would have listened if you had told me. I would have listened and I would have accepted you. But….. I didn't. No matter what I say or do, it can't change the fact that I denied you Touma. I took your pain, your heartfelt plea and turned it against you, sharpening my words into a knife to stab you."

Index's lip trembled now as she felt something clear run down her cheek, closing her eyes in order to make sure that she focused on that sensation. The tear rolled down slowly, followed by another yet she did not let up.

"I want to take it back Touma….."

Her voice trembled now, a weak thing that was hardly audible.

"I want to take back what I said but I can't. I'm sorry for saying what I did. I don't care who you were or will be. I don't care if the person you once were has changed from the person you are now. You'll always be the same to me. You'll never be any different and I want to be by your side once more! I want to spend more time with you, not as the person who saved me but with you as a person itself. Even if you've lost your memories, I don't care."

More tears fell from her eyes now, as she clenched the bedsheet a little tighter.

"I don't care that you lost your memories. I don't care that you never listen to me when it comes to magic. I don't care that you always do things that land you in trouble. They are a part of you and I'll always accept them. So I don't care about any of that. I…. I just want to take back what I said."

An intense pain went through her heart now. It was not something that she could merely pass off as she brought the bedsheet closer to her as she let the words within her heart pour out.

"I'll always accept you Touma. The one that is here right now is the one that I'll accept, no matter whether you've lost your memories. God….. please just let me take back what I said."

As a member of the faith, she made an impossible plea. She knew that this was her fault and that there was no reversing the decision that she had made and the things that she had said. There was no way that things would be resolved after what she had said and that fact broke her heart in more ways than she felt.

She would never return to the boy's side because she had abandoned him. This was a situation of her own making and that in itself only hammered into her head rather deeply.

Still, she wanted to overturn that impossibility. To the extent that she even prayed to God in the hope that He would hear her pleas.

Because…

"I….. I just want to be by your side forever Touma…."

The weak voice came out as she let out her heart through her mouth, the tears fully coming out now. They fell from her face and landed on the bedsheets, adding to the sound of the raindrops from outside. That pitter-patter and the sound of her soft sobbing were the only things that filled the room.

Index wiped her face however the tears continued as she stayed in the same position, holding the bedsheet as she cried. Her hands trembled as she made her silent pleas, hearing her breathing get louder and louder and quicker and quicker in response to her cries.

No.

Something was wrong there.

The breathing that filled the room; it wasn't from her mouth. It was deeper and more huffed; as if someone had been running for a while only to stop once they reached their destination. And such a destination was right in front of this room. Was it one of the nurses that had heard her crying?

Index wiped her tears away, managing to get most of them out of her eyes as she tried to smile even though she knew it would do nothing to hide the tears or the fact that she had been crying. She turned to face the door with that broken smile on her face.

"I'm sorry for coming in here uninvited but before you do anything, at least let me e-"

Index started to turn around however froze mid-sentence as soon as she saw the person that was standing there, sopping wet and out of breath.

Kamijou Touma panted heavily, his clothes and body wet from the rain. The wet clothes stuck to his skin and his spiky hair dripped with water. One of his hands was next to the doorframe, leaning on it as he tried to catch his breath.

Index's eyes went wide as she looked at the boy that was staring at her face. His eyes were sharp and alert as if trying to take in every detail about her before he said what he was clearly here to say.

Index with her eyes teary opened her mouth in order to say something however closed it. One word came to mind that she had to say, however she knew that she did not have the right to say it. Logic and her heart screamed for her to release that word from her mouth however nothing came out of her useless mouth.

Kamijou stood straight now that he had caught his breath, walking up to Index as the girl watched him do so with teary eyes. She knew what was coming next. She knew divine punishment when she saw it and whatever was going to happen to her right now, she knew she deserved.

Kamijou Touma was in the right and she was in the wrong.

That fact resounded in her head and a strong fear came up within her as she considered the only thing that Kamijou was going to say. It was painfully obvious what he was here to do and Index's heart screamed in order for it to not be true.

He was here to finally cut ties.

Index had crossed the line, done something that could not be forgiven and here Kamijou was right now to cut ties with her. She was going to be abandoned just like she had done to Kamijou.

And worst of all, in her heart she knew that that was the right thing to do.

She knew that what Kamijou was doing was the right thing to do despite her own heart screaming for it to be otherwise.

Kamijou approached her, standing in front of her with serious eyes that stared her down. An emotion was behind them yet Index did not want to look into it too much. They looked at her helpless form and figure, ready to speak and finally unleash that punishment upon the nun.

Index herself though looked down, closing her eyes and waiting for what was to come. She had no explanation for herself. She had run away from what she did and did not claim any responsibility so this was surely what she had to receive as retribution.

Despite how much she did not want it.

Despite how unbelievably unfair and selfish it was.

Despite how it only considered her feelings.

"Touma I-"

Index's own dark desires and selfishness came from her mouth as she started to look up however was interrupted by one very basic action.

Kamijou brought Index in close, wrapping both of his arms around her and he pulled her into a strong embrace. Index froze and felt his warmth, as he did with hers as he let out a voice that trembled with both fear and sorrow.

"I'm sorry….."

Kamijou let out that pained voice as Index suddenly felt something within her break.

That wasn't fair.

The one who should have been sorry, the one that should have been apologising wasn't Kamijou. Why was he doing it? Why was he the one that was selflessly thinking of himself in the wrong?

It wasn't fair to him and to Index herself who had to apologise first and foremost.

But more importantly, it was something that was characteristically Kamijou Touma.

That and of no one else she knew.

That raw fact, that realisation of who had always been standing in front of her the whole time combined with the unfairness of what she had said to him earlier hit Index like a ton of bricks. Her throat choked up any words and her tears fell from her eyes once more as they added to the wet on Kamijou.

"I'm sorry I can't be who you want me to be…."

Kamijou let out those words as Index felt her heart put in a vice.

Why?

Why was he still doing this? He was his own person and had revealed himself to Index. Why was he still insisting that he was nothing but a shadow? After everything that he had done, after everything that he had achieved, he was no longer the boy chasing after and trying to be 'Kamijou Touma'. He had gone far past that stage.

But the person that had made him think that he was no longer worthy of his own name…

Was that nun whose smile he was insistent on protecting?

"The old me…is dead. But even so, I want to believe that he is still alive in my heart, even though he's not in my head. There's no bringing him back and I can't be the exact same person that he was. I know that coming to terms with this is hard, but even so…. I don't want you to do that."

Index struggled to process everything; her head was a mess of raw emotion that Kamijou only added to with his soft words.

But the kicker had yet to even come.

"I don't want you to make that sad crying face anymore Index. I…I want to treasure every moment that we have together and I don't want you to leave. I just…."

Kamijou strengthened his grip as he made one single plea from the bottom of his heart.

"I just don't want you to leave."

Index did something that she felt she would never have done when she had seen Kamijou in the doorway.

She gripped him tighter and pulled him closer to her so that she could fully envelop in his warmth as she let out the pained cry that came from her mouth. Her emotions erupted from it, both cries of sorrow for what she had done but also for Kamijou.

The boy that truly thought of her pain in the situation and not his own.

He was still the exact same person that he had always been and the strong realisation that came with such only pained Index more than she could say. What had she done? What had she done to the boy that had obviously done so much for her?

She had denied him and she had never even thought about what it had been like for Kamijou to experience such a strong denial.

Her mouth opened and she finally managed to let out some words from her mouth.

"I'm sorry Touma! I didn't mean anything that I said! I didn't mean it and don't care if you're the old Touma or different from the one that I originally met! I just want to be with you! By your side! I don't care about anything else! I don't care if you don't forgive me or punish me for what I said."

Index felt her body collapse as she cried and let out her emotions from her mouth, accompanied by a stream of tears.

"I…I just don't want to leave you too! Please let me stay by your side Touma! I'm sorry! I want to be with you and it doesn't matter if you've lost your memories or not! I just want to stay by your side!"

Kamijou returned the strong embrace again as he brought the girl close, stroking the back of her head lightly as he returned her words with a trembling voice.

"I do too. Please…..please whatever the case, please accept me for who I am. I'm sorry for everything that I said too."

"I will! I will accept you Touma! As long as you come back from whatever you do, I'll always accept you! Even if you lose your memories, as long as I can be with you, I'll always accept you no matter what! So please, please don't leave me either! I just want to be by your side! For all of my faults as well, please accept me!"

Index made that selfish wish to counter Kamijou's as the boy only responded in kind, trembling as he struggled to hold back the emotions.

"I will…I will…. It's OK. It's OK now. I'm here, by your side. And I'm not leaving any time soon."

Those words, those simple and kind words of forgiveness and acceptance for Index while Kamijou himself was the one who had been in pain only added to Index's cries.

She brought Kamijou's head closer to hers as they both embraced, tears rolling down Index's cheeks like the rain outside as Kamijou closed his eyes and whispered soothing words to the crying girl.

They both sat there on the cold floor in the room where Kamijou Touma had been 'born'. But now, that place was more than just that.

It was where he had been accepted by Index, the person that he had wanted to protect beyond anything else.

Index had opened up her heart in the aftermath of her cruelty, revealing her inner desire and her wish to merely be by the side of Kamijou. She did not care that he had lost his memories in truth and she had been given a second chance by the boy that she had harmed so much.

As for Kamijou Touma…. he merely held Index tight, lost in the fact that he had been accepted as he let the emotional Index let out her emotions.

After everything that he had done for her and his own heartfelt wish to protect her, what else could he ask for but the chance to continue to be by her side? Even if it he could not live up to the expectations of the previous Kamijou Touma he still wanted to be by Index's side no matter what and it was his own heartfelt wish to continue that connection.

Any thoughts that they had on the matter or things that they wanted to say could wait though as Index let out her emotions in that small hospital room that was reserved for the both of them and their expressions of emotion.

* * *

"You all good?"

"….Yes. I'm sorry Touma…for everything that I said."

"I am too. I didn't mean it…but I kind of wish you would listen to me every now and then."

"I will Touma. B-But in return, at least let me supervise when you are touching my panties. I don't want you doing anything…. funny with them."

"What kind of pervert do you think I am? I handled your bra just fine."

"Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-You did WHAT?!"

Index screamed at the top of her voice with a reddened face as both she and Kamijou sat against the wall of the hospital room. They had both exhausted their tears and were sitting opposite the door on the floor. Kamijou's clothes were sopping wet and Index's eyes were red from her crying however in the current moment, a small calm had covered the two of them.

Although the door was open and the nurses were looking in every now and then with smiles on their faces now that they saw the two of them had made up, both Kamijou and Index found the time to talk with each other in calm and relaxed tones.

Kamijou reacted immediately to what Index cried, raising both of his hands above his head due to Index's fury behind her eyes.

"W-Well, it was necessary! I mean, your bra is nice and clean right now so there's no problem!"

"There is! There really is! Maika was telling me that boys are always interested in looking at, touching or smelling your underwear!" said Index with a fierce blush, something that was matched by Kamijou immediately.

"N-Not every guy is like that! I really want to have a talk with Tsuchimikado though." Kamijou noted before putting his hands together in a pray-like pose. "A-At least will you believe me when I say I did not smell your underwear?"

Index though only deadpanned as she faced the boy.

"Didn't you tell me though that the clothes _all _smelled like soy sauce? By definition doesn't that mean that you smelled my bra? ….And my panties too?"

Kamijou suddenly started to sweat profusely as he looked away from Index and whistled to avoid responsibility as Index twitched while looking at him. Her eyes moved rather rapidly however she retracted her opening mouth, only sighing and leaned backwards against the wall.

Kamijou looked at her, relieved that he had avoided the imminent biting attack (as he had in fact smelled her bra and panties although there had been much internal conflict in the decision to do so) as he looked at her. She felt his gaze and turned to face it with a smile on her face.

"Well, you're always like this Touma so I guess it can't be helped."

"I want to address what you think of me right there." Replied Kamijou in a dead tone before leaning against the wall, same as Index.

Index responded to the action by leaning on Kamijou's shoulder, something that he allowed as Index spoke up to the boy that was next to her.

"Touma….. thank you."

"For what?" asked Kamijou as he faced her with confusion? Was this about him forgiving her? In truth, there was no way that he wasn't going to forgive her and when she thought about it, Index realised that such a thing was truly a 'Kamijou Touma' thing to do.

Still she gave her thanks as she smiled a smile that radiated purity while grabbing lightly at Kamijou's hand.

"For everything."

Kamijou smiled lightly at the action that she did as he placed his hand on her hood, rubbing it lightly but putting on a frown at the same time.

"Your clothes are all wet though. Looks like we'll have to do another load." He remarked as Index looked at his own clothes as well before glancing outside.

"But it's going to be hard to get home in this rain Touma. Come to think of it, how did you know I was here?" she asked him as Kamijou merely shrugged.

"This was where we first met. For 'me' anyway. So I felt as though this was the best place to go." He replied nonchalantly however the reminiscence behind the words only brought to two of them back to that fated day in July.

It seemed as though the emotions that had been shown today were something that had been building up for a while, ever since that day and it had only been the argument today that had finally brought them to a head.

The two of them looked at the bed against the wall, silent as they recalled everything that had happened to the both of them since that fateful day.

"A lot has happened huh."

"And this was where we first met as well Touma." Said Index in a low voice as she remembered standing in this very room, begging in her heart that he remembered her. But that didn't matter now. Kamijou Touma was right next to her and she was sure to keep her grip on the boy as tight as she could.

She wasn't ever letting go.

Just so they could continue to be by each other's side.

"Yeah…."

The both of them let that comment hang in the air before they turned to each other, looking at the other's face before smiling.

The past was the past and the both of them had come to terms with that. But even so, the past and what had happened previously had moulded them, allowing them to turn into the people that they were today.

Even if they did not have one, the lost remnants of it in one's heart surely pushed them forward to the future as they made the most of the present at the same time.

The smiles that both Kamijou Touma and Index gave each other only highlighted that fact as they both made silent wills to ensure that the days ahead of them were beautiful and present just the same.

But even if they looked at that fully, they could not reject one thing.

While for Index, it had started on the balcony of a student dorm in District 7, for the both of them right now, it had started right here in that District 7 hospital, in that very room where they were now.

It was a place of connections, acceptance, healing and salvation.

And in a way, that meeting that the two of them had had here had saved them both, Index in knowing the safety of Kamijou Touma and Kamijou in knowing that there was someone out there that he desired to save.

But what they had to do now was to make sure that they strove forward to make the present and future worthy of that salvation that they had been given in the past, here in this very room.

And the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

The two of them had taken a break for now….

But now it was time to move forward, away from the past and into the future.

"Well, given the time, we may as well finally get something to eat," Noted Kamijou as he made a point about dinner while turning to Index. "What do you want? It'll be my treat. As usual. But today I'll go all out to make it up to you! Whatever you want, I'll get you. Within reason of course." Kamijou laid down the conditions for dinner even though if one reflected on what he was saying, it was nothing particularly special.

Still, on the floor of the hospital room, Index put on a thoughtful expression as if searching through her memories for perhaps the greatest meal that she could think of that she would eat. She considered her options, weighing them all against each other before turning to Kamijou.

"I'm fine with anything Touma. As long as I'm with you, I'll be happy with any meal!"

Kamijou blinked in surprise at that before his expression softened. He gave a sigh however even though it was exasperated, both he and Index could tell the relief that was behind it. The status quo had been maintained and the position of both him and Index had returned to normal even despite the issue of his memories.

That in itself was perhaps the point that brought him the most relief as he replied with a light hearted tone.

"Well then, we better get going! But we're not getting anything with soy sauce! That is officially banned!" He cried to which Index rose an eyebrow.

"Is there any Japanese cuisine out there that does not require soy sauce in some way?" she asked to which Kamijou looked at her with a look that suggested his pride as a Japanese citizen had been extremely hurt.

"Index-san? What exactly are you trying to say!? Don't fall into the dangerous stereotype that Japanese only eat rice! I'll show you exactly what the Japanese can cook up here in this City! Prepare to have your pants blow off in wonder!" He said in a rather loud voice to which Index frowned.

"Pants? Come to think of it Touma, you said all of the clothes were smelly from last night's wash. Does that mean that you don't have anything to wear?"

"Huh?" Kamijou said as he recalled what had happened with the clothes. "No not really. Although I think I won't have any underwear for myself tomorrow so I'll just have to wait a day. Mind you though, I won't have to worry about my fly getting caught on the underwear tomorrow." Kamijou remarked without a care as Index went red in the face at the fact that Kamijou so casually revealed he had the intention of going commando.

"T-T-T-T-Toumaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Index yelled at the top of her lungs as she fully turned her body to face Kamijou now, her embarrassment clear on her face as she paused. Instead of the boy doing the usual reaction of yelling and covering his head, his entire face was broken out into a massive grin. He made no attempt to protect himself from the incoming bite, something that stunned Index completely.

His next few words though only made it clear what he wanted.

"Try not to leave a mark this time OK?"

Index blinked at that, utterly taken aback. It was as if he had intended for Index to get angry only so she would bite him in a fit of embarrassment. It was almost as if he knew what to say and how to get her mad.

He simply knew her that well but there was also another aspect to what he had said.

It was that, for all of her faults (biting being one of them); Kamijou was willing to accept them full on. He was willing to take the good and the bad of Index and to fully accept her as a person. His actions and words only made that clear to Index right now as she closed her mouth, her face burning with red for an entirely different reason than embarrassment.

The canine teeth vanished within as she gave up trying to bite the boy due to her own feelings of being fully accepted, something that stunned Kamijou now as Index returned to leaning against the wall before dropping her head on Kamijou's shoulder.

Due to the suddenly passive nature of Index, Kamijou was confused however at the same time rather relieved that he had avoided any serious damage. But for now, as they both leaned against each other in silence, one thing was clear in that hospital room.

They had resolved their differences, apologised and more importantly, come to an acceptance for how Kamijou was right now given that he had lost his memories.

Both had hidden desires related around the issue of who he had once been.

Like the elephant in the room, they had neglected to speak about it but now that they had come to talk about the issue, they both came to realise something right now.

His lost memories didn't matter.

As long as they could stay by each other's side, then everything was fine.

The smiles on the faces of the two of them as they enjoyed the company of each other only revealed that pure fact.

* * *

**So, what did you think?**

**As you can see this was related to the issue of memory or rather loss of such. While this is not an 'Index finds out about Touma's memory loss' kind of idea, it was sort of focused on more of an 'Index rejects Touma because of his memory loss' kind of idea. While we've had numerous people find out about Touma and his memory loss, coming to terms with such was the first thing that really delves into the idea of Touma's fear of being rejected when he is a different person than the 'dead' Touma.**

**Then again, I could be wrong.**

**Whatever the case, I felt as though this was a powerful issue that had to be written between both Index and Touma. For Touma, having other people find out about his memory loss in Old Testament is never really an issue: it's merely something that he doesn't want to affect his normal life and thus tries to avoid speaking about it for fear that it will interrupt such. This is not the case with Index though as he clearly wants to avoid mentioning it to her because he merely wants to protect her smile.**

**While in OT 22 we had the reveal and Index's acceptance of his memory loss, by extension you can say that she accepted him as a person and that would be right. But at the same time I think that is what made what Index said here that more painful for Touma in the sense that she rejected him in a fit of anger without really thinking about her words.**

**The concept itself is childish but here I felt as though delving into the idea of 'things being said but nobody is listening' was what started the entire thing. While we had an issue that could happen to the both of them, it escalated beyond their control and ended up turning into the conflict that they had.**

**And this conflict is something that runs to the core of both Index and Touma. While the former has accepted Touma, the latter will always have that fear of being rejected by Index. His normal life with Index is something that he treasures more than anything (which also includes the biting as Touma was actually happy that Index would return to such a reaction after the fight as it is his 'normal' life) and as such having that rejection of Index cut really deep I felt.**

**More importantly though, it cut deep into the heart of Index. When she first says the words "the old Touma", if you yelled in rage at her or something along those lines, then that is the right answer. Index herself accepts herself as the villain in this one-shot but also I think that she can also be the victim of Touma's lie. However, as a whole she was someone that could not be forgiven for what she said, hence her heartfelt cries in a room where no one can hear her except for the image of Touma that she has.**

**Having Touma come in and apologise for his own faults, followed by Index's expression of her wish to merely stay by his side is something that I felt really dug deep into their relationship. Her response and how she has the exact same wish reinforces this as they both merely want to be with the other (romantically or otherwise, this can be taken both ways). As a result, I think that near the end scene with the two of them embracing and letting out their emotions really tied them both together. Then the end scene where Touma tries to regain a normal sense of life is also important there but in the end, this one-shot was really delving into one thing:**

**That relationship between Index and Touma. I think that I had to make this end note long merely because looking at anime only watchers and her current position in the light novel (as of NT 14 as this was written in March 2016), the former group of people always complain how Index is merely a greedy freeloader and the latter complains that she does nothing in the current series.**

**In this way, I think that we've forgotten that Index has a more important role than being the library of 103,000 grimoires. She is the person that Touma wants to return to his normal life with and the chemistry between the two of them (romantic or otherwise again) is something that I really love seeing. In fictions here, whenever we reach a Science side arc or merely want to get rid of her in some way (I am a victim of this) we usually manage to get rid of Index in some way. It can't be helped however I think that merely reducing her to someone that 'wants food or hangs out with other people without doing anything' is unfair to her as a character.**

**That dynamic between the two of them is really strong and something that I really love about the series. However, you look at it, when it comes down to this series all started with Index meeting Touma. The evolution of their relationship and how they treated each other with their kindness and faults was what really brought me in. Here, in the small line "I don't want you to leave" and how the both of them have that wish, it should really show that the two of them are connected and drive their own paths onwards together.**

**In this sense, if you felt anything for Index in this one-shot, I hope it was appreciation, especially of the connection that she has with Touma which I think we sometimes forget given her biting. **

**This end note turned out really long didn't it? Maybe I just really like Index as a character that I want to support her. Whether you do so as a member of the Kami-yan Disease or merely Touma's precious friend who he wants to return to, I hope you came to like her as well.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please.**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**Whatever happened to Sphynx in the end? Touma must have left him back at the dorm….. Actually, come to think of it, he left the drying clothes out in the rain as well didn't he? Such misfortune.**


	34. The Parental Perspective of Change

**Ta da! Back with the requests.**

**For those that want to see more of something here, then I at least want you to send something in. I always look forward to the ideas that you guys have to supplement mine or at least expand on what I already have. So if you have an idea that you want me to do, then don't hold back whatsoever!**

**So, in order to satisfy that, here we are once more with the requests.**

**This one comes in from d3mystic who asked:**

Don't know about a second part for this but would like to see a Touma's parents' POV chapter about the changes in their son's life before and after his transfer to Academy city or a chapter where Touma's parents (especially Shiina) meet Touma's harem members

**Just for clarification, the thing that I will be dealing with here will be the former idea so don't get your hopes up for the latter! We have enough 'harem' things here and I sort of want to divert away from that here, I hope. Mind you though you can think of this as sort of a 'subpart' of the PROS and CONS that many people sort of wanted to see for themselves so here we are!**

**Right, so enough of this banter and let me get on with the show!**

**Here we are with the Q &amp; A:**

**whwsms: Yeah, I think it was Kamachi himself who said that Index's biting represents her affections for Touma as Touma is the only one she bites. I-I'm not too sure about Index 'marking Touma' though in this sense but it's an amusing idea to put out there! Doesn't that mean though every time there is a scene in ANYTHING where Index is biting Touma, there is subtle shipping? Commence the shipping wars. I also think that whenever Tsuchimikado and Maika hear them yelling at each other that they only wonder in their minds what kind of crazy topic they are discussing. Mind you though, if they were listening as soon as they heard Index leave they probably knew it was no laughing matter. In a way Touma and Index are an old married couple aren't they!?**

**Guest: There are too many clues with Index and Touma to make a proper guess!**

**UCCMaster: I completely respect your opinion there. Index x Touma is a niche but it definitely is there in the series, after all she was his first confession but people like to think of characters as stronger romantic interests. I'm not saying that you're wrong though! Index definitely holds Touma's sanity and love the most but the connection between them is definitely that of best friends in any respect: the connection between them last chapter could be interpreted either way if you wanted it to so I'm not going to put words in your mouth. But I'm sorry for making you cry! I hope they were good tears. As for ACUL0 and some minor Railgun characters, I'm not entirely sure myself. There are very little 'school' scenes in Uiharu's arc but I'll see what I can do. I'm not sure though if I could get Shinobu in the story though…..**

**Guest X (this will forever be reserved for you): This is fine if you skip some of them, I don't hold it against you whatsoever. The one-shots here are just ideas that I pen down for the fun of it and without thinking about story so much. I'm not too sure about the vote though….. I mean Heavy Object vs. Raildex was back in the SS and while I'm considering doing another one, I have no idea whether or not to go through with it or the schedule because of those constraints. The scariest thing of Heavy Object vs. Raildex is that I would have to create an OC Object….. Only to have the trio of Touma, Quenser and Heivia (should I put Hamazura in an Object) destroy it.**

**Guest00: Hmmm…sort of like an origin story of where the Delta Force first discovered the Kami-yan Disease? Given me time to brood on this point and we'll see…. I'm not entirely sure though if Touma should be threatened for it though. I'll definitely consider the idea but the idea of Kanou Shinka along with tag team Saten to find out the truth of the Touma rumour seems interesting….**

**wildarms13: You're definitely right. If Mikoto confronted him with the issue of his memory loss, I can see the two of them parting ways from it but the damage in this chapter was entirely on the basis that Index was the one that harmed Touma, something that neither of them have done. More than that, it was through her words which cannot heal and how she lashed out at Touma in an unjustified way yet truly feel sorrow and repentance for it sort of created what I was going for: a chapter full of feels where we look at the flaws of the characters and how they can interact with each other despite them. I wanted to sort of create an Index that realises that she has done wrong and seriously repents from it, not praying to God so much but to Touma in her sorrow. Romantic scenes with Index are few and far between but I seriously love them when they are properly done! Did you feel as though last chapter was romantic though!? And thank you for saying that it was done perfectly; I'm just a guy with spare time but seeing a comment like that makes my day. Maybe for the next chapter something like this comes up, I should provide a tissue warning….. As for Othinus, last chapter was set after NT 6 so she was still the villain then. The 'memory loss' caused by Othinus is something entirely different though.**

**Agent Nine: How do those ninjas get inside my home?! And stop cutting those onions! I know how you feel and this chapter was sort of written with that type of thinking in mind. Basically, Index has gotten away with a bit too much (especially in my own story) with her biting despite it being a somewhat sign of affection so I felt as though having her cross the line, knowing that she did so and repenting for it was something that she needed to do. Even there are somethings that Index will not do to Touma without meaning it. While her biting can be tuned down I wanted to create a one-shot where Index does something unspeakably bad and has to come to terms with how much she values her connection with Touma. I find that in the moments where she is supportive, not biting and being honest, she is a great character for the series and one of the ones that sucked me into the franchise. And thank you for giving this one-shot a chance and allowing me to show you Index in a different light. As BTL and ACUL0, BTL is something that allows me to experiment with ideas. As such, if there is something that I really like in BTL (or you guys like) I'm more than happy to write it into ACUL0. At this stage though, whenever Index and Touma appears, I do want to facilitate a moment where Index has a moment like this of raw connection with Touma even though there was such back in the early stages of the Lessar arc. Simply put, I want to give Index more love and make her appeal more to other you know?!**

**Horizon Dreamer: 250 hours for a gal game is nothing! You gotta love the heroines! And another Interrogation…..? Let me see… As for Mikoto, just scroll down.**

**Encendrel: Firstly, thank you so much for taking the time to read this and posting your thoughts. I enjoyed your review and really liked looking into your thoughts on the matter. I started this one-shot with the idea that I wanted to have the 'Touma and Index' tag making people think of a light hearted and fluffy moment but then completely went the other direction and have a scene where the two of them really lay themselves down and expose themselves and their faults to the other before entering into acceptance. I'm a fan of Index as well, much like you and although I didn't cry at OT Volume 1, that moment where Index confesses…I struggled to hold back tears. She bites Touma unfairly and she is decreasing in relevance in the novels but by no means does that write off everything that she has done beforehand. I find in the moments where she is not doing those sort of things that she is a marvellous character in what she does and how she does it; the one line in the climax of OT 13 just shows that Index can be a badass when she puts her mind to it. Too bad others sort of put that to the side of their mind and just think of her as an eating machine and nothing else – allowing us to write her into the background with ease as I said. I never thought of Index's biting being used as a counter OOC character device though so you've opened my eyes to that a bit. And thank you for realising how I wanted to tie Index to Touma; I wanted to have Index push the suffering a bit and then Touma react to this at Index's pace. And you're right here as well! She was his first friend! Too bad though the shipping community thinks that people in the friendzone need to step aside. But the bond between both Index and Touma is more powerful than that and being his first friend fosters that strong connection between the two. There's a lot of potential with Index and Touma that I don't think many people see because of their own preferences but as a fellow Index (as a character) fan my heart and respect goes out to you. …What a long response. Seriously when I get started…..**

**pop2ww****: This! Your quote which I shall now relay back to you!** "Index is the one constant who has been with him ever since he was 'born' and will be with him till the end of days and Touma will remain the shining light for Index's past, present and future".** I think this captures the entirety of what Index and Touma is all about. It captures their relationship, their connection and their reliance on one another really strongly in words that I cannot express. Personally, I can understand the Index hate but I don't sympathise with it. Anyone can give me reasons why they hate Index and I will see where they are coming from but I won't agree; she is that dynamic and strong a character in my eyes and I am allowed to think that because of my freedom as others are allowed to think otherwise too. And you're right, Index serves as the rock for Touma. During the NT 9 rant, the ONLY name that Touma states outright is Index in reference to his peace. Index is no longer someone that Touma saved, she is someone that he returns to and wants to return to time and time again after every fight. If anything, Touma wants to protect her for that alone, for that peace she gives him. And naturally there is that shadow within his heart; all of his insecurities after everything he has done! Having Index say that serves as a real eye opener to just how fragile their connection be but also its strength when it moves into the acceptance theme of each other's faults. Touma and Index aren't perfect as you said: if they were perfect the series itself would have no issues solving problems from the get go. They are human, flawed and have dark sides to them that show themselves and bare their fangs when it is not needed. Having them both accept each other for everything that they are worth really strikes home and shows that their bond and love (platonic or otherwise – whichever you see it as) for the other is that strong. Their bond is the one thing you can't deny and also the wish for the both of them to stick with each other despite everything. I love Index and Touma and their connection together for that alone and how each character complements the other. And you are free to feel that Touma x Othinus (OTP) is stronger romantically than Touma x Index. But I'm glad that you note that the bond there is just as powerful. As for the schedule, following what you've said about the surprise makes me not want to do it! Hence I won't! But as for the Futures Kaleidoscope II I have written a second part but it probably won't be posted for a while.**

**Kawabata Nobuhito: This guy has an appearance similar to Ren Akatsuki from Fairy Tail save with lighter skin and a scar running from his left eye to his mouth. Characteristically, I gave him a leather jacket to emphasise the point that he was a delinquent and the black eyes made me think of a person that had lost all hope in the world after he was attacked by Mugino which in turn led him to join MINUS. Having his wear leather but have flat hair seems like a contradiction but the appearance he is supposed to give is similar to someone living on the edge of a knife: if he hadn't attacked Mugino, he would have been a pretty nice guy that would not gave cared much about Level at all. But his emotions and grudge got the better of him and turned him into the villain he was.**

**Markoz89: You read everything via Google translator!? My heart goes out to you…. Bur you're right; Touma feels pain but the way that he uses that and saves others despite his own pain is really part of selflessness that you were talking about ages ago! I think that's part of the reason why we can like him so much as a character despite what he faces in his pain in that he will struggle to help someone else as well. I know what you mean about having Fukiyose seeing the NT 9 worlds for Touma to break the status quo but after NT 16 and seeing how she cares for others in that way makes me think that the Fukiyose chapter will be based after the events of that novel to give a way to break the status quo for you with her connection with Touma. I only hope that it turns into something excellent like you say…! And I don't hold it against you that you think of Touma and Index as fraternal, their bond though is extremely strong and what connects them allows for that kind of interpretation between them. And I know right!? I'm glad that you noted when Index said she prefers the 'old' Touma, I was trying to create a situation where as a reader you're thinking "OK, this fight is getting out of hand" and then Index says what she does, leaving you wide eyed and open mouthed. I'm glad to see that it somewhat worked here. And thank YOU for reading so much despite the language barrier!**

**Before I begin though (more banter so don't hit me), I'd like to thank the usual people. First, PokeRescue18. His contribution is most appreciated and I want him to know that I am always grateful for it.**

**Second, the reader. You've done more than you think so I hope that you understand that you have an important part to play in this project as well.**

**And finally d3mystic. Your idea has definitely allowed me to come up with something that has allowed me to form an idea that wasn't mine so thanks very much for that. I hope that this is what you were looking for and that you think I did the idea justice.**

**And from me, I hope that you enjoy this new chapter and one-shot. Note though, I won't be adding a schedule to this project merely because I think people sort of like the surprise that comes. I mean, how many of how are looking forward to the next Rumour and Futures Kaleidoscope!? I'll keep it as a surprise for you in this regard though.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

An External View Through an Adult's Eyes. _Reminiscing_in_a_Future_Sight_.

The hurried forms of people in Academy City during the fifth day of the Daihaseisai reminded both Kamijou Shiina and Kamijou Touya of Tokyo during rush hour. Indeed, the flood of people moving through the City felt as though it was supernatural in itself that so many people had managed to get inside in the first place.

Currently looking out of a restaurant window, the two parents of the boy known as Kamijou Touma looked across at their son who was sitting opposite them on the rather large table.

He was not, however, alone.

To his right was the girl that was known to them only as 'Index'. The girl had stayed with them when they had visited the Wadatsumi resort and while they had wanted to get to know the girl a bit better as she seemed to be… rather close to their son, the fact that their son had lost his mind when they had met seemed to be the bigger issue at hand back then.

To his left, and also someone that seemed to be rather close to their son was the girl known as Misaka Mikoto. To Touya's right was her mother, Misaka Misuzu and the words that she spoke only seemed to add more and more red to her daughter's face as she spoke.

Mikoto had her head down and Kamijou was constantly looking over at her nervously as something that seemed to be like sparks constantly flashed on and off from her forehead. They were only intermittent but both Touya and Shiina were positive that they were seeing those sparks with more and more frequency as Misuzu spoke.

Kamijou was sweating rather furiously at that fact given that he was sitting next to her but probably also because of the place that they were in.

Simply put, it was an 'all-you-can-eat' buffet.

While it was lunch time on the fifth day, it was Index that had suggested it to Kamijou's parents that they visit such a place. Kamijou himself had just finished (or rather finally finished) a marathon that had happened through the City which had closed most of the roads. While the footage of their son was lost given that he had finished last place, the moment that he had crossed the finish line, they only had questions.

After all, what was that monkey doing around his neck? Why was what looked to be a lioness chasing after him and why were there lion cubs in his arms? Why was he being followed as well by numerous zookeepers that looked at him as though he was some sort of criminal?

Those questions had been asked after Kamijou had managed to escape by using the monkey to climb up a tree with the lion cubs before jumping and using a nearby dumpster as protection from the lioness that still seemed to want to gouge into him.

Some tranquillisers later, and a few yells and shouts and lecturing from the zookeepers, Kamijou had finally finished the marathon that he had taken part in.

His parents had naturally asked their questions, as well as Index for that matter, yet the boy had merely seemed rather despondent as if recalling the events themselves was something that was sure to bring on some trauma.

His parents had left it at that; after all, they knew that some of the issues that surrounded their son were perhaps something that they did not want to press any further into, if not for keeping their son's privacy or wanting to protect their own peace of mind by thinking that he was safe here.

Regardless of what had happened though, upon Index's constant insistence and Kamijou's counterarguments on why it was a SUPER bad idea to let Index take as much as she wanted, the parents of the boy had given into the nun's demands.

In her cheerleader outfit after all, how could they let the nun down when all she wanted to do was eat?

Kamijou had sighed at the matter before he had agreed although with a slight smile on his face as he had looked at the nun as she cheered. She had merrily escorted them to the best place in the District from what she remembered and Touya and Shiina had tried to find a place to sit while waiting in the queue.

And yet, as fate would have it, luck was on their side (even though the reaction of Kamijou suggested that he was doomed). Already seated and having not yet decided on the food that they were going to collect from the all-you-could-eat, were people that both Touya and Shiina had met on the very first day.

Misuzu and Mikoto had called out to them and the parents had accepted the invitation to join them. As it seemed the all-you-could-eat was nothing more than a lump sum per person which allowed you to eat as much as you could for no more or extra, Touya and Shiina were more than willing to pay for the four that they had brought.

Misuzu had insisted and upon much deliberation and the hospitality of the Japanese dictating that politeness and courtesy was of great importance, they had decided to split it 50/50. While Misuzu came out at a loss from that, it seemed as though the extra company that she had made it more enjoyable.

Thus the quartet had sat down, with the children on one side of the table and the parents on the other; with the boys in the middle of their respective sides.

While they had yet to actually get their food though, something that Index seemed awfully upset about as she was the one that was against the window and thus had Kamijou and Mikoto in her way to the all-you-could-eat, it seemed as though the conversation that had arisen between the parents prevented any movement for the hungry nun and her calico cat Sphynx.

It had surprised both Touya and Shiina that pets were allowed but then again, this was Academy City. Given what they had read in their letters to their son, they truly wondered why everything was still surprising them despite what they already knew of esper powers and the like.

Initially, tensions had been high, well just between Index and Mikoto that seemed to glare right through Kamijou for a reason that was beyond the boy. So, in order to relax the tensions that had arisen, Misuzu had started a topic that was something that Kamijou had wished she had never touched on.

'Childhood stories'.

With each word that Misuzu spoke, it only seemed to make the girl on Kamijou's left grow more and more embarrassed as her embarrassing childhood stories were being said in front of the one person that she did not want to hear them. Kamijou though wasn't really paying attention to them as he had the misfortune of constantly being in the way of a stray spark, causing him to yelp every time it hit him.

He seemed to want to bring his right hand in front of him however the nun that was to his right was trying to restrain herself from pouncing on the all-you-can-eat by gripping rather hard on the boy's right arm. She was trembling at the anticipation of food, constricting Kamijou's movements from protecting himself. Misuzu did not seem to notice as she continued talking.

For whatever reason, perhaps it was because that there were more embarrassing stories where they came from and Mikoto wanted to make sure that they were not said, Mikoto stayed where she was even though her childish nature was being displayed by her own mother.

Touya and Shiina on the other hand only listened patiently, absorbing every word that was being said by the women next to them as they smiled. They did not do so merely because it was polite and they were only partly interested.

"And then you know what she did? Mikoto-chan asked Papa, that was Tabigake; my husband, where babies came from! I couldn't stop laughing and here was my husband, flustered and without knowing what to say!"

Misuzu let out a laugh even though there was no food on the table in front of them to occupy them as they listened to the stories. Touya and Shiina laughed with the woman, adding light tones to the air.

Kamijou on the other hand, looked over with fearful eyes to the left as Mikoto's forehead let out sparks once more. His hell had hardly started though as Misuzu directly asked him a question with a smile on her face.

"But you know what I think? It's her naïve charm in those sort of things and how she wants to deny talking about them that is something that she has to address in later life. What do you think?" she asked with a glint in her eye as all heads (except Mikoto's) turned to Kamijou as he found himself suddenly crying internally.

He glanced to the left once before opening his mouth and smiling a little bit.

"W-Well I would think that although you're right, that charm is something that makes Misaka your daughter. I'm not too sure what later life entails and how that would affect her own life but the way she is now is fine to me, whatever happened in her past. I wouldn't want to change her for the wor-Kyah! Misaka-san, seriously please stop with the Biri Biri! It's seriously getting to the point that my hair is going to get spiky without gel!"

"D-D-Do you think it's fun to mock me just because you've heard some stories?!" Mikoto suddenly spoke, looking at the boy with a red face. It seemed as though it had gone a bit redder from what the boy had said even though Kamijou himself seemed clueless to the matter.

"Wha-? How was I mocking you?! I mean, sure you like childish things but that's what makes you, you! That naivety is a part of the whole 'Misaka Mikoto' so wanting to change you for my own personal convenience or telling you what I don't like with the intention of changing you when it suits you fine is something that doesn't sit right with m – I-I'M SERIOUS! STOP WITH THE BIRI BIRI!"

More sparks flew from Mikoto's bangs as she seemed to be more flustered. Her mouth moved up and down from the perspective of the boy and how he looked at her as she sat back down. She hung her head, ears burning and it seemed as though steam was lightly coming from her head as she mumbled under her breath.

"(H-Hearing you say that 'I'm fine to you' and 'things that suit me fine' is too misleading and is open to misunderstanding. Idiot…..)"

"What did you say?"

"NOTHING! KEEP YOUR NOSE OUT OF MY BUSINESS!" Mikoto suddenly yelled at the boy as he seemed rather taken aback at the sudden shout. Both Touya and Shiina tried to calm them both down while Misuzu had a big grin on her face as she glanced between the oblivious boy and the tsundere girl.

Index on the other hand, gripping Kamijou's arm tightly to the extent that the boy was worried about his bones breaking glanced over to the girl.

"Well Short Hair, if you want my opinion-"

"She really doesn't Index. She really doesn't so please don't cause a situation that is going to lead to nothing but mis-"

"-I'd say that the way that you treat other people is something that needs to be addressed. Not everyone thinks that they are the greatest you know."

"Such misfortune."

"Wh-Where did that come from?! Do you have something to say to me you hypocritical cheerleading nun?! Choose an occupation already! And you never answered my question! What are you doing following this guy all day, every day?!" Mikoto stood up and glared at Index, all red from embarrassment gone from her face.

Perhaps out of irritation that was Mikoto stopping her from leaving the table, Index stood up in the same fashion and retorted.

"Who's a hypocrite?! I-I'm a nun! It's just that the festive season that has surrounded the Daihaseisai has meant it is appropriate for me to wear these clothes! Do you think that we mock senior citizens for dressing up and singing carols during Christmas?! What about church goers that do the same?! Or cosplayers for that matter?! And what I do with Touma is none of your business!"

"What do cosplayers have to do with Christmas?! Besides the way that you phrase what you do with this idiot is nothing but misleading in itself!"

The two girls yelled at each other from above Kamijou on the boy merely hung his head and shook it in his hands. He looked at the empty plate that was in front of him, almost as if looking at his reflection in it with sorrow as Misuzu realised the landmine that was about to explode between the two girls as she shifted her attention.

She turned to both Touya and Shiina as she smiled a little but even then one could tell it was strained. And she spoke with a frantic tone as if to use her position as an adult to speak above the two girls that seemed ready to fight over any little thing as Index was hungry and Mikoto was pissed from having her stories exposed.

"W-what about your son? Surely you have some stories that can match mine!" Misuzu asked with a light tone as both Index and Mikoto froze at that statement, looking at Kamijou's parents with interested gazes.

The change in atmosphere was almost as obvious as the silence that followed given that Index and Mikoto had stopped shouting. Touya and Shiina's happy expressions immediately changed, turning into that of lament, sorrow and perhaps a fraction of regret.

Everyone's expressions were stunned at that as they turned to Kamijou who was merely looking back down at his plate. For an instant, he had seen his parent's expressions, feeling a stake drive into his heart as he saw those people that had cared for him making those types of faces.

But the person that they were probably thinking about had died and the current Kamijou was the one that took his place. And such a person had no memory of the events that his parents were recalling and as such the only thing that he could do was match the expressions that his parents had.

He had no memory of his childhood after all, even though there had been some things that his father had hinted at during the climax of Angel Fall. But even so, Kamijou hadn't thought it was that bad.

Yet those expressions that were on the faces of his parents only made him reassess that opinion.

For an instant, Kamijou's mind went back to the hardships that his previous self had faced, somehow feeling as though the hollow gap that was in his mind was something that was a blessing in disguise. What had he forgotten?

What could he not remember?

Was it important to remember those things?

He could not say for sure but the reaction of his parents spoke volumes.

The entire Kamijou family was silent as eyes watched with both worry and concern, most notably the girls of Index and Mikoto as they stared at the boy Kamijou with gazes that only suggested concern. Sure, they had never heard him talk about his past but they had thought that it was something that was more of a personal thing.

Like for instance, there was embarrassment or just plain, old, usual misfortune in the mix. But the way that the three of them were acting, it felt as though there was something more behind it.

And indeed there was.

For Kamijou Touya and Kamijou Shiina, when Misaka Misuzu had told them of her daughter's childhood and the slice of life happenings of such, they had absorbed every word. It was not because they were parents and enjoyed hearing such things or because they were polite or because they were partly interested.

It was because hearing those stories indicated a _normal _childhood.

And that was something that Kamijou Touma had never had.

The stories of other parents were always told or mentioned in passing. Workmates, people in the supermarket, those types of stories would appear every now and then with people having a laugh at the childish stupidity of their children when they were young. It was a common point of connection for parents where mothers and fathers were surely able to connect with each other once that point was established.

But for Touya and Shiina, there was none of that connection with other parents.

Happiness?

Laughter?

Slice of life moments that were relatively boring but one could look back on with a smile?

Kamijou Touma's childhood had had none of that. Or at the very least, extremely little that it was offset by everything else that had happened. The personal hell that the boy had faced was something that he rarely talked about, even when he was younger but the pressure that those memories had upon his parents was so heavy that they did not know how to word it.

People that knew them knew that the topic of 'childhood memories' for them was an impossible one. Sure there were pictures of the young boy as he was growing up in their home and offices, things telling of a past where the young boy was happy with his family but those pictures only went so far back.

The gap between the past and now was something that was a long road, filled with nothing but misfortune for their son.

Pain covered his path through life when he was young; the only thing that filled those childhood memories. Stones, curses and abuse had been hurled at him from all directions, rejecting his very existence up until the point where it was obvious that the boy himself felt as though he was an existence that had to be rejected.

At some point a change had occurred within the life of the boy before he had entered Academy City.

At some point, when he had come home from kindergarten, he had not rushed into the arms of his mother crying and asking why people hurt him so and why he was born, filled with misfortune. At some point that childish crying had stopped and Kamijou had borne it all himself. He had taken the burden of his painful childhood, bottled up anything that he wanted to say and kept it to himself.

The change that had occurred within him was almost chilling. He would have come home with blood from his temple, rips in his school bag and clothes yet he only smiled when his parents asked him what had happened. It was like he was a robot, a being without will of his own, only able to smile painfully as he felt as though no one would sympathise with him even if he cried his lungs out. His tears had run out and the only thing that he could do was think of himself as nothing more than scum walking the earth with everyone else.

"Touma's childhood…." Touya said that as his expression changed once more, turning into that of a more playful expression. While it seemed as though the man was merely trying to brush things off, his mind recalled the way that his son had done it when he was young.

'Such misfortune'.

Those words carried a heavy weight behind them when they were said for those parents of Kamijou Touma. He said it in jest here, almost as if the words had been implanted into his speech patterns from overuse but the way that he had used them when he was younger was by far no joke.

Coming home, day after day, covered with wounds and only smiling when his parents begged him to tell them what had happened.

'Such misfortune'.

Animals attacking him when he went to the zoo.

'Such misfortune'.

Getting salmonella for 6 consecutive weeks to the point where he had to get his stomach pumped to prevent stomach acid from rotting the inside of his mouth.

'Such misfortune'.

And…

That time when he had been stabbed in the back by a man who had fallen into debt. While the words that he had spoken when he had been stabbed were not 'such misfortune', they had been the ones that he had spoken when he had recovered consciousness on his hospital bed.

Touya tried to do the same as his son by maintaining a light expression but he could tell from the shocked expressions of those around him that it was hardly going to fool anyone. After all, his son was the master of hiding what he thought and felt, behind an impenetrable veil.

Were they jealous when they heard stories like the ones that they had heard from Misaka Misuzu and Misaka Mikoto?

Of course they were.

When had they smiled with their son and done things like the ones in stories?

As a family, they had gone to the zoo once. Kamijou had almost been eaten by a lion when he had fallen into their enclosure because of a rusted railing.

As a family, they had visited an amusement park once. A fire on one of the rides that Kamijou had gone on had almost suffocated him.

As a family, they had visited the beach once. They still had the shark tooth that had gotten caught in Kamijou's neck after he had been rescued from the water.

Did they have memories that they could look back on and smile about? Probably they did but they were buried among the memories of hell that those parents had faced.

They did not blame their son. How could they as his tears had all dried up and he had merely accepted himself as an existence that was better off dead? How could they blame him when the only words he said when he was being hurt were 'I'm sorry', only to laugh cheaply after it with the phrase 'such misfortune'?

He had stopped crying but the internal screams seemed just as audible behind that smile that the younger Kamijou had made.

So Kamijou Touya and Kamijou Shiina had started to do the unthinkable as parents. They hated it whenever Kamijou smiled. They hated him coming home covered with wounds, facing misfortune day in, day out, only to smile and laugh it off with the words 'Such misfortune'. They hated those words that felt so heavy and they hated the smile of their only son when they always knew that there was no fragment of happiness there.

Only a dark despair.

His smile never contained (or at the very least rarely contained) the happiness that they felt they had to give him. They had failed as parents and nothing that they did would ever change that. Parents were supposed to protect their children and that small smile filled with clear pain was something that drove into their very cores.

There was nothing that they could do as Kamijou did not discuss the problem. They had told him time and time again that they were there for him and he acknowledged that. But then the process repeated itself with Kamijou coming home with the same wounds, with the same shallow smile and passing off everything, never telling his parents due to how he bottled up his wounds and feelings.

Touya and Shiina knew that the moment that the thought of hating Touma's smile filled their heads that they had failed their son. They could not blame anyone but themselves and it pained them more than they could say to think of themselves as people that were incompatible with the one that they had brought into the world.

They said that they loved him. Yet they hated that part of him that kept everything to himself and never consulted them. They hated the world that turned against their only boy with its fangs bared just because of his misfortune.

And without realising it….. they became almost exactly like the people that they despised so much. They almost fell into the trap of hating their son despite loving the boy more than they could. They hated that smile because they loved him so much. It was a cruel paradox that sent their minds into a frenzy.

So, as parents that only wanted to protect their child, they had sent him to the only place that they knew would protect him from the people that were so caught up in concepts of superstition and luck.

And perhaps also to protect their son from themselves.

Academy City, the City of Science was the only refuge for an outcast like him and they had sent him there. There had been much deliberation and guilt for Touya and Shiina as they had sent their son off to fend for himself and it had not been an easy choice to make. They had debated, yelled at each other with both of them changing sides constantly until ultimately, they only had to look at their son's smile for an answer.

Was Kamijou Touma happy with his parents?

Was he happy living with them?

Of course he was. He maintained that so much that it brought tears to their eyes from the thought that despite the world hating him so much, he loved his parents to counter the hate.

Yet was he truly happy? If they loved their son that they hated his pained smile, was this the right place for him? Did they really want to constrict their son to false happiness because they loved him so much?

The answer was natural after that.

They had decided almost instantly but the moment that they had, the words and choice that they made twisted their souls and hearts to the extent that they had not said anything to each other for hours. They loved Kamijou Touma, that was no lie. But the thought of sending him away because they loved him so much had driven them almost to the brink of despair.

The day that Kamijou had left, Touya and Shiina had been entirely despondent. They had no words, no thoughts and the only thing that filled their house was an endless silence. Not even alcohol could drown their sorrows away and they had merely waited for the letter that Kamijou was sure to send from the City….. that was if did not think that his parents had abandoned him.

Because that thought would have been entirely natural.

Had they abandoned their son? Had they truly hated him? Were they good parents? They had failed in every aspect and pushing Touma away was only the accumulation of everything that he had faced. It was only natural that they felt as though they had failed their son and small voices inside their heads told them exactly what they didn't want to hear.

That they had done their best. That sending their son away was the right thing to do and protected him from everything around him. The logic of the words and the rational reason held true.

But there was no way that Touya and Shiina could accept them.

The idea that their son was happier away from their side tore at their hearts more than they could say. They had sent him away, ripped him from their lives all because they had been unable to do what parents were supposed to. They felt as though they had been terrible parents, that Kamijou Touma truly was damned to misfortune because of being born to parents like them.

It was two months before they got the first letter from Kamijou, something that snapped the both out of them out of two-month despondent state that they were in. Energy filled them both and they had read the letter, only to realise the horrible truth.

That the letter was dated two months before they had received it in the mail.

The letter had gotten lost in the mail after Kamijou had sent it and true to his form and misfortune, it had not arrived until two months later. Touya and Shiina remembered how they had rushed to the gates of the City itself to hand back the reply in person just so that their son knew that they were not replying because they had not abandoned him but rather because the letter had been lost.

Even after all this time, their son still loved them.

That thought alone was the only thing that allowed Kamijou Touya and Kamijou Shiina to continue living.

Letter after letter had come back from Academy City and the replies had been sent back and forth with regular frequency. Touya and Shiina got accustomed to the letters in the mail and after a while even telephone calls were exchanged regularly between the family members.

If they were considering Kamijou's childhood now, the one that had been filled with pain and suffering, the only thing that stuck out to his parents was the childhood that he had spent away from them. After all, for all intents and purposes, both Touya and Shiina felt as though the boy's true childhood and life was within Academy City, not with them.

Such a thing was a painful thought for them for mainly one reason.

It separated Kamijou Touya and Kamijou Shiina away from their son Kamijou Touma.

Childhood videos of incidents that they had filmed with the intent of laughing at in later years were gathering dust in a locked box in the basement. They had all recorded incidents that had led to nothing but misfortune before Kamijou had moved to Academy City, the one that had never been watched being the one that recorded when he was stabbed that fatal day.

That box and those videos had not been thrown out, mainly because of the fact that it was the only connection (apart from pictures and the occasional childish drawings) that they had with their younger son, no matter how painful it was.

For the sake of protecting their son, they were happy to push themselves out of his personal life and think of Academy City as the 'true' start for him. After all, given what he had faced during his time with them, that wasn't happiness. It wasn't a childhood and it wasn't a life worth living.

So they had felt that Kamijou Touma's 'birth' and 'life' had truly happened in this City of Science.

But even so, the letters that they had gotten back truly told a different story. Kamijou was still facing misfortune even here in the City. Nothing had changed except for in different ways.

Instead of being hit by an average motorcycle, he was hit by a prototype hover board that used an air cushion propulsion device.

Instead of being attacked by animals (which he still was), he was attacked by numerous robots.

Instead of getting salmonella, the Power Curriculum Program had had an adverse effect against his brain which had lasted two months but the full details and what had happened were never released to Touya and Shiina because of the censor that Academy City placed on the letter that protected their reputation.

Indeed, nothing had changed except now instead of it being an average hell, it was a sci-fi one.

It was almost laughable.

But…. even though that darkness was engulfing everything, there was a single ray of light that showed itself in the letters.

And that was the personality that the boy had shown so purely when he had been living with them.

There had been one thing about the boy that they had noted during his 'not-childhood' before he moved to Academy City. And it was the strange, almost abnormal need to reach out and grab anyone else that was suffering.

Was it because he understood their pain and refused to want to let it stretch on like it did for him? Was it because since no one helped him, he felt as though he had to help himself and thus extend it to others as well? Or was it because he simply felt as though it was normal to want to help others in need and save them from the pains of life?

They had asked the boy numerous occasions and he had merely given them the same answer each and every time.

"If I want to save someone I will. It's normal to want to stop pain right? I don't need an overly large reason."

He said that even despite his pain. He said that even though people cursed him and treated him like dirt. It was a strange thing to view in that sense but at the same time, it almost added to that purity of their son.

And that purity, that personality and want to save others showed itself in his letters. He wrote about how 'person X' had been caught in 'Y incident' which he had managed to assist in. The mention of it itself seemed to indicate that he was merely mentioning what he did to make sure that his parents did not think that Academy City was just a different hell but as they read more and more into his exploits, those parents did indeed feel a small change.

And as the years had gone on and the childhood periods had ended, that change became more and more obvious.

Sure, he still faced misfortune but the endurance that he had showed only seemed to be something that had made misfortune back off. Instead of being attacked and hurt in fatal ways, it was only light.

A bus would narrowly miss him and Kamijou would only be hurt when he threw himself to the side, accidentally jumping through a shop window.

Hot plates of food would fall onto him without any reason.

Dogs would urinate on him without any reason as he waited for public transport.

Touya and Shiina had cracked a smile at some of those things and perhaps the greatest change was that they felt that they did not have to feel bad about that. The incidents that he faced were something that were light and while his childhood had been hell, his teenage years had allowed him to seek out his roots and do what he wanted to do.

Touya and Shiina had missed numerous birthdays. But for them, the fact that they did not get to see their son growing up was secondary to the fact that they knew he was safe. The rare occasions that they saw him were filled with pleasantness (unless they counted when they had first met Index as Kamijou truly seemed as though he had lost his mind back then) and although their niece Tatsugami Otohime wanted to spend more time with him, they all knew that Kamijou Touma would surely go off and do his own thing in his own way.

Which he had and continued to do.

But...looking at him now, both Touya and Shiina felt as though they were looking at a different person than the child that they had sent to Academy City so many years ago.

His letters back home had told them of the many crazy things he had done. While they told them of the fact that he was still facing misfortune in numerous ways, there was one thing that they had read a few years ago that had truly made them pause and spent many hours going over the letter again and again to make sure that they weren't hallucinating.

The word 'friend'.

Kamijou Touma wrote (rather causally which they felt was rather annoying given that it seemed as though it wasn't a big deal for him when it was) that when spending time with some friends, he had managed to help out a store assistant with the running of a shop. He had written that the economic situation of Academy City was probably different from the rest of the world and had asked his parents about it (probably to sound smart) but it had been that one word that his parents had focused on.

The word 'friend' had been used.

And that was something that definitely indicated a change.

The boy that had never smiled truly and had never cried as his tears had dried up made a friend. He spoke as if they were merely something normal for anyone but for Kamijou, the boy filled with misfortune, it was hardly the case.

There had been much questioning and Kamijou had replied that he felt as though he was being interrogated but it was that important to his parents to discover the issue itself.

Kamijou had written back and the situation for him seemed to improve; he met more and more people and made more and more friends, facing more and more misfortune as time went on, but one thing stuck out to both of those parents.

Kamijou Touma truly seemed happy in Academy City.

While they had wanted to see how their son was doing when they had visited the Wadatsumi resort, it was more during the Daihaseisai that they had gotten a full picture of just how their son had changed without their knowledge.

And it had been with the girl known as Index that it was made known. That and the girl known as Misaka Mikoto.

The way that they talked and stuck with the boy was something that they felt that they would never have seen had their son never gone to this City. And that was light banter, as if the two girls and Kamijou himself were truly bound together as friends. As they were girls, there was the chance that there was something more there but even if that was the case, it still did not change the evidence of what was in front of them.

Kamijou Touma…had managed to make friends.

That fact alone, given what his life had been like prior to Academy City was significant in and of itself.

The way that they conversed and treated each other, Kamijou and Index and Mikoto, it all seemed as though they were quite attached to each other and (although it seemed it was not the case between Index and Mikoto) rather fond of each other as well. But at the centre, just like with the table was their son Kamijou Touma.

He had managed to accomplish something, something that those parents had felt was entirely out of reach for their son. Yet he had managed to do it perfectly.

He had managed to find a place beside someone else, not being put in the role where everyone was greater than he was and he was nothing more than a parasite, living off the world and the kindness of his parents. He truly had become his own person, managing to find people that accepted him despite his misfortune.

And that in turn made Kamijou Touya and Shiina happier than they thought was possible.

Not only that though, there was something else that they had seen earlier that day.

It had been after Touya and Shiina had given into Index's request for an all-you-can-eat buffet and decided to go there. Kamijou, who had been against the idea under the impression that instead of a lump sum, one would have to pay for what one ate but when his parents had given in, he had sighed. It was in exasperation as if something was wrong yet he had turned to the cheering nun and done one thing.

He had smiled.

He had given Index (or at least in her direction) a smile that seemed to be from the bottom of his heart as he followed her to where she remembered the restaurant was, Touya and Shiina stuck in place as they had watched that boy smile.

It had been something that had not been forced or put on in relation to some kind of event. It had been genuine as if something that was done ordinarily, naturally and without thought. He had merely smiled at his friend and that in itself was a normal thing to do.

But the fact that their son had the capability to make such a smile despite what had happened to him and the pain that he had faced was something that was stunning to his mother and father.

They had seen him smile before in a genuine fashion when he was smaller. Christmas and his birthday were such occasions but the rarity of it only made it seem as though it was something that would fetch a high price if it was put up for sale.

After all, the fewer items that there were in an economy, the higher the price of those items through basic laws of supply and demand. And Kamijou's smile was definitely something that would fetch a high price when it came to his parents.

But….as they had watched that smile, one thing had become clear to Touya and Shiina.

It had not been the first that they had seen during the Daihaseisai. Maybe it was because there was the frantic nature of Kamijou rushing around during the first two days and the chaos that had happened then but on numerous occasions after the fact, Kamijou had constantly smiled and grinned in a genuine way when it came to different things.

And he did so even when he was faced with misfortune.

He would have the contents of someone's drink spill all over him and despite the apologies, would merely hand the drink back to the person that had spilled it on him and provide them with the money to purchase a new one. His misfortune was something that he lived with and gotten used to for the most part; he had adjusted.

He might have still seen it as a curse, something that Touya and Shiina did.

But he moved on, using that curse and attempting to give blessings to others that were not given that curse.

He truly had maintained his natural tendency to want to save people, no matter what reason or own personal crisis he was facing and because of such, it only made him shine brighter in the eyes of those parents that had tried to protect him.

And those genuine smiles that he gave in response to the life that he had found in Academy City and among the friends he had made, despite his misfortune only showed one thing.

In a way, in perhaps not on a personality level or mentality one, Kamijou Touma had changed.

He had moved on from the pain, embracing it and wanting to turn his misfortune into something that he could use to alleviate suffering of others when he came across it because of his misfortune.

He had faced his own life and circumstances, making the most of it and turning it into something that he could truly smile at. He had found people that had accepted him despite his misfortune, found a life for himself here, made friends and did something that everyone should have the chance to do.

Kamijou Touya, while recalling that very fact, remembered something that his own son had told him on that beach near the Wadatsumi resort.

_"I don't want to be that lucky guy. Instead of living a carefree life and not knowing about the pain of the people around me, I'd rather be unfortunate and get involved in the pain of those people. Don't think that I'm an unlucky person. I'm the luckiest person in the world!"_

He had accepted that he was unlucky. But….. in that sense, his own misfortune and the way that he came across the suffering of others turned him into one of the luckiest people in the world. He faced the world with misfortune yet while he complained about it, never once turned his gaze away from someone needing help.

Because he was full of misfortune.

Because others needed saving.

And that in turn allowed him to smile in that pure fashion.

In truth, for those parents right now, as they looked at their son and the way he smiled with those around him that were his friends, they felt as though they were looking at a completely different person. His gait, light hearted nature and the way that he joked around indicated that the world was merely a place for him to live in and he was happy to be a part of it.

He was no longer a God of Pestilence or Plague.

He was Kamijou Touma, a simple, normal high school boy that one could find anywhere.

Had that little boy so long ago ever thought that he could have something like that?

Had Kamijou Touya and Shina ever thought that by sending their son to Academy City to have a proper childhood that it would turn into this; that their son would find more that what his parents wanted him to find?

They could not say for sure, but one thing was clear.

And that was Kamijou Touma's life in Academy City had changed for the better. He was happier beyond what they had imagined and could smile with a purity that they had thought he would never have.

Academy City had saved the boy that was their son, allowing him to smile in a way that they had rarely seen. They had turned that once-in-a-lifetime event and made it commonplace, and now as the smile had changed away from the one constantly filled with pain, Touya and Shiina could never not love that smile.

He was their son after all.

He deserved a good life, one that he had not received during his childhood with them.

And one that he was given in this City of Science.

Even if the world was against him, they would feel that he was the one person that deserved the best. They had seen the worst that the world had to offer, as he had as well but he had pulled through, turning those misfortunes into fortunes that he could be proud of.

And as a result, both Kamijou Touya and Shiina were proud of their son. Even if they had thought of his 'childhood' and 'life' starting in a place that was far removed from them, they still wanted nothing but the best for Kamijou Touma.

More than anything then, they wanted to see that smile once more, that pure smile of true happiness that seemed so rare before but was so commonplace now in this City that had saved him.

They loved their son, Kamijou Touma with all of their heart. And they loved this City that had saved him, by giving him a life that he loved with people that he loved as well surrounding him.

Kamijou Touma's life and situation had changed.

And it was surely for the better.

"Touma's childhood…" Touya repeated what he had said as a light hearted tone entered his voice. Those thoughts that had entered his head only made the positivity of the realisation fill him as he truly felt as though he did not need to hide his dark feelings under the pretence of illusion anymore.

Instead, when he thought about what his son had gained, there was true happiness behind that happy tone.

Everyone else seemed to have not noticed it as they tried to wonder what in the world Kamijou's childhood had been like to illicit the response that Touya had originally but only Kamijou noted that change in tone. He rose his head lightly, rather taken aback to see both of his parents looking at him with smiles.

They were not false ones, trying to hide dark feelings that came with the past. Instead, they were merely true smiles as they both considered the change that had come over their son over the years. The positive change that had turned his living hell into the average, normal life that seemed like a blessing as those parents considered what it meant for him.

And so they spoke, looking at their son as they voiced their own thoughts.

"I think he would know better than anyone else. Wouldn't you think Touma?"

"Indeed, Touma-san. After all, it all started here in Academy City for you didn't it? Aren't you happy that we sent you here?"

Touya and Shiina spoke to Kamijou as he blinked once in surprise given what they were saying. Naturally he had no idea what his life was like prior to Academy City but looking at what their expressions had been and the little knowledge that he had within his mind, he knew that it was nothing that he wanted to reflect on.

But more importantly, there was something in what his mother had said when compared to their expressions when they had first brought up the topic. When it came down to it, the current Kamijou Touma had been born and raised in this City for the short time he was alive.

So what did he have to say to that?

What was the only thing he could?

For some reason, something inside Kamijou's mind immediately came to a decision. Kamijou had an inkling of what it was; the remnants of his previous self trying to shine through in the current by answering in the only way that he could: through the truth.

And even though Misaka Misuzu, Mikoto and Index all looked at the familial exchange with looks of worry and concern, all of that was dispelled as Kamijou Touma smiled that pure and genuine smile and spoke.

"Yeah. I am glad. Thank you. Both of you."

Those heartfelt words of gratitude almost made Kamijou Touya and Shiina want to embrace their son then and there but they knew that it wasn't the place or time.

But Kamijou, their son had managed to overcome his hardships and truly thank his parents for what they had done for him. His hellish childhood had been overcome and the decision to send him to this City they knew to be the best decision that they had ever made for the boy.

And for now….

They felt as though the reward that Kamijou Touma gave them through his smile was all that they needed to confirm that they had made the right decision.

* * *

**Finished!**

**So, what did you think?**

**Technically I wrote this in a day but what did you think of it overall? As per the request, I hope that you enjoyed it as a whole but if you look back at what I've written in CONS (either part), I think that this might also be the redemption for Touma's parents given the choices and hardships that they faced during Touma's childhood.**

**I sort of go into length with these Afterwords in the notes (especially here) mainly because having an insight into the author's mind is something interesting for me to consider usually. I realise that many people just skip the beginning and the end here but this is what I think at the very least to say.**

**Right! This one-shot was the Touya and Shiina Reflection Corner! For the both of them, there is a relative quiet time for them and Touma given that they only can converse through letters and emails but as a whole, the progression of Touma's character through his time in Academy City is something that really was the highlight as you could see. As we all know (well at least from what I've portrayed), Touma never had what you would call a 'childhood'. It was in fact hell and that was reflected in Touya and Shiina's thoughts here. Whenever other parents spoke of their children like Misuzu was, they could never relate.**

**After all, when your child gets stabbed, beaten and abused verbally, how can you laugh at the slice-of-life moments?**

**When looking at this and the progression that Touma made through his time in Academy City saving people and also having his misfortune lessened, it only goes to show how the Touma we know is definitely far removed from the child one that has been written. He accepts his misfortune, considers himself lucky and truly looks forward to meeting other people instead of cowering and wondering if he will hurt them.**

**Naturally, Touya and Shiina notice this progression most of all, especially with the lesser incidents of misfortune and the fact that he wrote in is letters of having friends and enjoying time with other people.**

**For his parents then, I think the most important part here was when they felt that they had to separate Touma's life from their own. His childhood was nothing and in order to truly allow happiness come to their only son, both Touya and Shiina felt as though they needed to think that the time they spent with him 'didn't count' because it was only a time dominated by suffering.**

**It was only when he had left them that things got better so the strength needed to think of their time with their son as something that 'didn't count' when it came to experiences was something that must have been hard for them, but at the same time shows how much they care. And at the same time I had both Touya and Shiina almost enter into a state of self-hate. Seeing the both of them look at young Touma's pained smile at hate it with everything that they have despite loving their son was really important for them in that it pressured them to send Touma away. What did you think of that?**

**I also felt that the line of Shiina where she asks the group to ask Touma about his childhood memories as they 'start' in Academy City was pretty powerful as it shows that she feels that Touma's happiness was experienced away from them.**

**That's just what I think but the thanks that BOTH Touma's (important!) said at the end was the final touch, giving the relief to those parents in that they know that the decision to send Touma away was the best one for him.**

**I think that maybe the hardest part of this though was after this entire conversation where both Mikoto and Index tried to wring out childhood stories when A) Touya and Shiina consider the hell Touma faced as not his real childhood and B) Touma doesn't remember any of it.**

**I hope for the most part that you enjoyed this comparison and how Touya and Shiina watched the progression of Touma as he evolved through his youth here.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please.**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**Those first two months that were censored by Academy City. I wonder what kind of hell Touma went through after going through the Power Curriculum Program?**


	35. The Eternal Conflict of Light vs Dark

**You might be unsure of what to expect with these originals so the only thing that I will say from the characters that are involved and the chapter name is that ITEM sure has had some difficult jobs in the past.**

**I've always felt drawn to the darkness of Academy City and that's probably because of the sheer scale of the Railgun manga, OT 15 and 19. The Kiharas definitely supplement this interest but at the same time, there is always the light as well. While the darkness wants to envelop it fully, it still exists no matter what meaning that it might be interesting to see how _certain characters_ are contrast to that darkness.**

**But I guess I'll speak more on my thoughts here at the end of the one-shot. So for those that are merely onlooking, I want you to know that this is something of a fun experience that I am sure that you can look forward to. Then again, sometimes these one-shots are a hit-and-a-miss sort of thing but then again, that's usually the case with me.**

**Here is the usual Q &amp; A:**

**naruhinasakufan1: Thank you for your kind words and I'll be sure to note your request there! Keep in mind though that given everyone's requests, I've gotten up to Chapter 84 in planned drafts for this so please hold on for a while until I can get around to posting and writing the chapters….**

**Guest: Ah, thank you very much for your criticism, I'll keep in mind and try and ensure that I don't disappoint you in the future when it comes to dealing the same issues again. I hope though that you enjoyed last chapter nevertheless. As for Touma going through the Power Curriculum Program, I think that he would have. When magic has been explained to him, he's given the excuse that 'because he is an esper' he can't use magic without it destroying his body and then supplements it with Imagine Breaker probably interfering with the spell. So using that as the basis, I would think that he did have his head filled with drugs during the program. Ah, I remember that as well, especially during OT 17. Thank you for reminding me when Touma goes ape. Angry Touma is scary Touma after all…..**

**whwsms: I really want to touch upon this idea of 'The Day the World Cried' you know?! It's just that I have no idea how in the world to address it…. But it's such a good idea that I can't get it out of my head! Seeing everyone's despair at seeing a past that he can't remember….. Ah, it's too much I sort of have a chapter that covers it in the future for BTL but we'll get there when we get there….**

**Guest X (see how helpful this is!?): Ah, the Dragon Killers from Heavy Object. Somehow an Academy City bred magic-esper-all-out war machine Object would be golden. I've already gotten crazy ideas for how it could work….. and how to put it into ACUL0 if the opportunity arises….. but I'm glad that you liked last chapter, especially how the landmine that was Touma's memories was so hard to deal with for those that can remember them.**

**wildarms13: Thank you for your kind words, especially around my ability to make you feel something with these characters and the emotions within it. I always hope that I can illicit some kind of response so seeing that I am successful in such always makes me smile. It makes me beyond happy so I only want you to know that you have my thanks. As for a .5 chapter of Touya and Shiina meeting the harem, I'm unsure how to approach such. The idea is novel but how it would be done is the only thing tricky for me to deal with. I'll let the idea site in my head for a while and see where it takes me. As for Touma's parents arc in ACUL0 I'm not entirely sure that I can get it however one of the arcs that I'm planning will involve Touya heavily so hopefully you can get what you want with that arc!**

**ghostdriver1991: Hi there ghostdriver1991! I'll be surer to add this to the requests but I hope that when I get around to it that you are still around….. because the wait will be a while.**

**seiker: Hi there seiker! I can really imagine this sort of thing happening where Tabigake meets Touma for the first time and 'interrogates' him heavily while Touma literally has no idea what in the world is going on and everything h/e says only invites misunderstanding. As for a possible meeting, I think it would be something win the context of a 'Parents Day' within Academy City at the very least and their meeting happening with Touya and Shiina catching up Misuzu and their children only meeting together with the parents by coincidence. At the very least though that is my interpretation of such but what I think and whether or not this happens are two different things! This is just my opinion so have a look at it and take it with a grain of salt.**

**Agent Nine: Yeah, I'm sort of wondering what happened to the humour as well. B-But think of this as being a good catharsis in that many of the emotional issues that are untouched by Kamachi can be handled with by yours truly! But then again we need more humour…. As for Touma falling into an animal enclosure when he was young and the animal, getting shot for it, I can imagine Touma literally not understanding why in the world it would have happened and being shattered for it. I've had his childish character at that point lost in the thought that he deserves the pain he is dealt so the thought of someone else being hurt when he is supposed to would really put things into perspective for Touma and throw him into despair. After all, it would raise questions about Touma's safety: if an animal that would have hurt him was put down then does he deserve to get hurt? If not, then why is he hurt? Those sort of things would be asked by young Touma and really make him despair I feel.**

**Guest00: We'll really have to see how things go with this idea though. I can sort of imagine it happening but how it would be done hasn't really fit together in my mind yet. So it's an idea that can be expressed in the future maybe….**

**pop2ww: Well although you haven't reviewed this chapter, there are still the 'character associations' that I owe you so here they are for Itsuwa's arc:**

**Alexis: I felt as though the character that bet suited her would have been Green Heart from Hyperdimension Neptunia save for giving her black streaks in her hair and more piercings to give her the impression of a delinquent. The main purpose of this character given her connection with Aureolus was to create an alchemist that truly looked as though she had lost everything and turned to alchemy because of it. The way that she dressed and the dead look in her eyes are a testament to this as well and only really served to give her the impression that when she is pushed, she would betray her friends in the blink of an eye. She was designed to be rather intense and her look hopefully expresses that.**

**Basilio: In contrast to Alexis though, I felt as though Basilio was meant to be a more calmer character so imagine him being something like Sinbad from Magi even though he would be younger, have more brown than purple in his hair and put it into a ponytail. WWIII turned him into someone rather intense so having that sort of intense image compared to the refreshing one given one given by how Sinbad is portrayed aims to show just how much he was shattered upon learning of her death. It transformed him into the villain that he became but he was not necessarily a bad person, just pushed in the wrong direction like most in this series.**

**But first, before we begin, I'd like to thank the usual. The first is of course PokeRescue18. For his contribution, I have nothing but my deepest thanks.**

**And of course, you the reader. You've stuck with me this entire time so thank you for what you've done for me this entire time. I hope that this chapter is worth it.**

**So I merely hope that you enjoy this chapter and the characters that have unwittingly become the focus.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

The Paradox of an Unstoppable Darkness and an Immovable Light. _A_Dirty_Job._

The explosion that resounded through the laboratory sent the perpetrator and the victim flying backwards and forwards respectively. The shockwave hit them right after, lightly beating against their chests as the rush of wind blew smoke and the smell of flames in both their directions.

Frenda Seivelun coughed as she narrowed her eyes, trying to see through the smoke of the explosive that she had thrown. A feeling of relief finally spread through her as her body relaxed.

It had been a pain yet the job was finally –

"H-How can you do that to someone?! I could have died!"

Frenda gritted her teeth so hard that she felt as though she was going to rip her lower jaw off. She stood up and threw her beret to the ground. She stomped on it violently as she stuck up her middle finger to the figure that was surely on the other side of the smoke. It cleared but even so, she had not been able to see her target's face ever since she had engaged.

"Why aren't you dead then?! How much have you survived? Do you have the tenacity of an irritating mosquito? Don't tell me your esper ability is to escape death?!"

"D-Did you just compare me to a mosquito?! How rude can you get?"

"I'M TRYING TO KILL YOU SO CAN YOU AT LEAST SENSE THE TENSION?!"

"W-W-What!? Y-You've been _actually _trying to kill me this entire time?!"

"Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! Are you telling me that all of my other attempts were so insignificant that they meant nothing to you?!"

Frenda yelled at the top of her voice as she felt as though she didn't even care anymore. She ran to the smoke and jumped right over the flames, tapping her left shoe against the ground as the hidden stiletto that was inside appeared in the heel of her shoe. A figure appeared in her vision on the other side of the smoke and despite her poor vision, Frenda felt her body react in the way that it should have.

She twisted her body, swinging the blade in her shoe to where it would meet against the target's neck, slicing through the throat and resulting in a slow death. Although she liked to use explosives, Frenda still had her own personal style and against this opponent, she wanted to relish in the fact that they died slowly and painfully with the last thing they saw being her beautiful face.

She cleared the smoke, swinging her foot in a complete arc to the target's neck as she fully got a look at the figure that she had been chasing for a while. They tensed in surprise at the sudden appearance of Frenda however she wasted no time in swinging her foot at their throat.

The target only had a limited time to react, throwing up both hands but even then, the both of them knew that it was useless: against a blade, simple flesh never stood a chance.

Yet even so, the blade and Frenda's killing strike stopped in mid-air as Frenda went wide eyed. Sparks came from the contact where Frenda had met the target. Her mind registered disbelief as her foot stopped, having hit _something _but at the same time her target had shown no sign of injury whatsoever.

Frenda's leg was suspended in mid-air, the stiletto piercing what should have been the target but her mouth went wide as she saw what she had hit instead of the target's neck. Sparks flew from the destroyed cell phone as a 'gack'ing sound came from the target as they too had their mouth wide open in surprise given not only the fact that the cell phone had stopped Frenda's killing blow but also that they had had their personal possession destroyed.

"My phone! H-How could you!?"

"Goddamnit! Just die already!"

It was April 1st.

Frenda should have known that by the date that something was up however when ITEM had received the job through their usual contact, the ITEM liaison, they had thought nothing of it. It was something of a dirty job to say the least; something that was hardly suitable for the talent that ITEM possessed.

Mugino Shizuri, the #4 Level 5 Meltdowner.

Takitsubo Rikou, the Level 4 AIM Stalker.

Kinuhata Saiai, the Level 4 Offence Armour.

And finally, Frenda Seivelun, a so-called combat specialist who preferred to use explosives than anything else in her fights.

The four of them made up ITEM and it had been them that had been asked to complete the relatively simple job that had been given to them through an unnamed client. It was usually the case and ITEM had accepted regardless, namely because of the fact that the heart of this mission itself was related directly to an internal problem within the Board of Directors.

One of them, Phillip Garrison had been determined as a rogue Director by an in-depth investigation by Anti-Skill that had left 10 of its members dead. Of the 2 members that had made the reports, both of them had eventually been assassinated but not before the information itself had been leaked to the other members of the Board of Directors.

Officially, the position of the Board of Directors right now was in deliberation about the appropriate punishment to be handed down to Garrison due to his violation of international human rights laws.

After all, keeping certain students of Academy City locked up and subjected to psychological and physical torture (often of a sexual nature) on a day-to-day basis violated basic human rights. The bodies that had been found in Garrison's own place of residence had been horribly mutilated to prevent any trace from going back to him and the members of Anti-Skill that had made the report were the witnesses. Even though they were now dead, not investigating further into the matter would be seen as negligence on the part of the Board of Directors and thus, discussions were being made about what to do about Garrison's actions and appropriate punishment to be dished out if evidence was indeed found of him being the one to consent to such actions being performed.

Then again, this sort of stuff was textbook Dark Side of Academy City. The only mistake that Garrison had made was being discovered by members of Anti-Skill without taking the proper precautions and failing to assassinate the relevant Anti-Skill members in time.

There were heaps of other people doing the same, if not worse in this City but it was this bastard that had the misfortune of being discovered red handed in the act itself. It was almost laughable how his own acts were coming back to bite him after failing to take precautions but then again, that was the job of ITEM right now.

Whoever it was, most likely they could rule out Oyafune Monaka and Kaizumi Tsugutoshi, one of the Board of Directors (maybe it was even the top, the Chairman of the Board, the General Superintendent of the City itself) had determined Garrison to be an eyesore and thus, had requested to have him killed with no witnesses.

That had been the request, word-for-word. There had been no ifs, buts or roundabout way of saying it.

They had simply asked him to be killed and ITEM had simply responded.

Not because he had done something overly bad and not because he had violated the rights of those espers that he had tortured physically, psychologically and sexually.

But rather because he was an eyesore, a pain in the ass for someone that didn't want to do paperwork.

It was classic Dark Side and ITEM had been more than willing to respond to the action if only to overcome boredom and achieve some good sport for the year.

Simple reasons resulting in simple actions that led to nothing but blood, death and violence. That in itself represented the Dark Side of Academy City perfectly with no proper path, the only thing that determined where one went was how many bodies were littered up along the way.

ITEM had responded immediately, going to the facility where Garrison was said to be hiding out in for the time being. Naturally, they had found their target immediately and also discovered why he had probably been found out in his atrocious actions.

It was because he had been absolutely careless in hiding anything that was related to him.

The moment that they entered the facility where he was hiding, where there was nobody around, automated security robots and numerous Powered Suit units, of the model MPS-79 which was used at the Reformatory, had attacked them.

They hadn't directly discovered Garrison but the fact that they had been attacked so viciously when they came to the facility only indicated to them that something was wrong and that someone clearly had something to hide by using that much firepower to protect one building that had long since been abandoned.

And so, they had ploughed their way through without so much as breaking a sweat. They had ploughed through the automated defences that had stood in their way, destroying everything in sight as they had entered the abandoned facility. ITEM worked efficiently and without remorse as they took out everything that was in sight, leaving no stone unturned as they obliterated anything that even rose a gun barrel at them.

Their objective though had been in their mind the entire time as they had searched high and low for their target. Mugino had taken the top most floor, Kinuhata with Takitsubo the middle floor and Frenda the bottom as they had moved through and did a complete sweep-and-destroy operation to flush Garrison out.

The call had come in only moments before Frenda had come across her own trouble: Mugino had found that the target had committed suicide within his office which had been protected by a bank vault door. But even then, nothing could have withstood the blast of the famed Meltdowner beams that had obliterated that supposed perfect defence into nothing.

In the end, the coward had killed himself, much to Frenda's annoyance. If they had known that he was going to take such action, bombarding the building in the first place to make the man commit suicide that much earlier was the way to go but things being what they were, they had managed to find their target dead and the mission was over.

Well, it would have been if _that _hadn't happened.

Just as Frenda was about to pull out, someone had appeared in front of her. In that midst of destruction, a lone boy judging by his clothes and pulled up hoodie had come up to her and asked her where he could find the office of one Phillip Garrison.

Frenda, in hindsight felt as though she should have killed the pest on sight however curiosity took over her as she asked him what things had been about. He had held up a USB flash drive and said that it had been accidentally mailed to him and that he had come personally to return it.

He assumed that Frenda was some kind of engineer given all of the destruction but felt as though it was none of his business what a cute girl like her was doing in her spare time, something that he had said himself. Frenda had directed him to the stairs that led to the basement where she had combed first.

Naturally, that was nowhere near where Garrison's office had been located but the mission had stated extremely clearly:

No witnesses.

It was none of Frenda's concern that the boy had a massive amount of misfortune and bad luck on his side that they were in the middle of an operation. Mugino had probably made the call and thus the bombardment having stopped when the boy was making his approach meaning that there was no reason for him to stay away when there were no explosive sounds coming from the building itself.

As most of the defences had been automated as well there were no bodies, only wrecked machinery around but even so, it was clear that the boy wanted to ask something of Phillip Garrison when he reached him.

The boy had asked Frenda what had happened however the 'cover story' that was her as an engineer had served its purpose as the boy had started to head toward the basement stairs. It had been then that Frenda had pointed the gun that she had concealed straight at the boy's head as he had walked away.

It would have been easy. Quick, simple and painless, over in an instant for the both of them, with Frenda probably coming out with a nice bonus.

Had he not fallen down the stairs the moment he had reached them.

The gunshot had resounded, missing by mere millimetres as the boy had tumbled down the stairs, Frenda immediately moving to finish the job as she fired repeatedly at the boy as he fell down said stairs.

Technically, that in itself should have worked.

Had the explosions from all the machinery not weakened the structural integrity of the staircase. The moment that the boy had landed in the middle, the entire thing had broken apart sending him deeper into the laboratory as Frenda emptied her entire clip in trying to kill him, all shots either bouncing off metal plates that had fallen with him or missing entirely.

Thinking that the entire building was going to collapse, the boy had made a run for it with Frenda following him in order to kill him. But with every time that she threw an explosive, the boy would round another corner or trip on wreckage, using it as cover, meaning that while he was covered with scratches and bleeding in places, he was still able to move.

It had only been until they had reached a flat part of the basement that Frenda had thrown the explosive that she had, before the boy had made his comments and she had, in anger, reacted to them by sending her left shoe stiletto towards the boy's neck.

Which left them in the position that they were now, the boy holding Frenda's shoe in his hand with a broken cell phone as Frenda had her leg suspended in mid-air as the boy was grabbing it with his hand.

"Y-You…are you seriously trying to kill me?! B-But I haven't even done anything?!"

"Basically, you're just here in the wrong place at the wrong time. My condolences."

"Th-That's it?! Such misfortune!"

Frenda though did not listen to the boy's complaints as she pushed herself forward with her leg suspended in the boy's hand. The suddenness of the realisation that he was in fact in the firing line when he hadn't realised before seemed to make the boy hesitate if only for an instant when his movements prior had been sharp, although ignorant.

But that in itself was the moment that Frenda needed to strike and kill the witness of what had happened here. There were no hard feelings (well maybe just a little) but in the end, this was nothing but business. Cold and calculated, Frenda would take this poor boy's life and end it there.

So she moved to do that very thing.

She pushed herself forward as she clenched her fist, striking the boy in the face as he recoiled, letting go of her foot as the cell phone he had was thrown from his hand and landed on the ground. Released from the boy's grip, Frenda performed a roundhouse kick with her left foot and pointed the stiletto at the boy's chest, striking upwards as to manipulate the blade into the boy's heart when it pierced the skin.

But even though that was the case, the basic human instinct for survival made the boy react faster than Frenda.

He ducked underneath the kick as the knife in the shoe caught onto his cheek as he reached out and grabbed Frenda's leg once more. She retaliated instantly, pulling in closer for another punch in the hopes that the boy was still stunned to the extent that he could not react.

Frenda though was not that lucky.

The moment that she pulled into punching range, the boy slammed his forehead into hers. She yelped and started to fall backwards but the strong grip on her leg meant that she never got the full fall in. Frenda instantly regained her balance yet with only one leg on the ground, it proved to be a more difficult task than she felt.

She never managed to fully regain it though as the boy used his now free hand and grabbed Frenda's leg with both of his hands, pulling her towards him. Frenda yelped again in surprise as she saw herself closing into the boy however he acted in a way that Frenda could not help but wonder whether it was stupid or brilliant.

Without wasting any time he pulled off the left shoe of Frenda while at the same time pushing back as Frenda lost her balance once more. The boy let go of the leg as Frenda suddenly found more of her body weight being put into the fall but the release of her leg meant that she could fully regain her balance now, something that she did.

Both of her feet touched down on the floor as she looked in surprise at the boy that had already started to turn and run away.

With Frenda's left shoe in his hand.

"H-Hey!" Frenda called back at him in rage. "Give that back!"

"Shut up! If I see a threat to my life, I'm naturally going to go for it! Can't you just leave me alone!?"

"Stop making my job harder and just die already!"

Frenda yelled that out as she chased after the boy once more, the boy turning a corner as Frenda gritted her teeth, holding the explosives that she had hidden beneath her skirt in both of her hands. She rounded the corner that the boy did, seeing in the distance that he was starting to ascend the staircase that led to the first floor (or ground floor) that was fairly close to the wall.

She grinned as she saw the distance between them being something that she could cross in a second or two if she pounded her legs however even then, she didn't even need to get close in order to silence her target.

Frenda Seivelun specialised in explosives after all.

And she prepared to throw them straight at the boy right now that had his face covered by the hoodie that he had kept on this entire time.

"This ends now." Frenda let out that decisive statement as she held the bombs in her hands forward. The boy instantly stopped his advance, turning and facing Frenda with his own weapon in hand.

"Not if I can help iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!" The boy screamed at the top of his lungs as he threw the object that he had acquired moments before, Frenda's shoe. It sailed through the air as Frenda's eyes caught the glint of a metal surface spinning through the air as it was thrown at her; the side of the blade on the heel catching the colour of the flames that surrounded the basement every now and then.

The shoe flew in an arc as Frenda easily dodged by stepping to the side, turning to the boy with a raised eyebrow, wondering what in the world he was trying to accomplish by performing such a see-through tactic.

Even if it was a distraction to escape, there was no way that he would manage to get out of range of the explosives that she was holding right no-

She went wide eyed as she saw the boy heading straight for her instead of fleeing, holding a clenched fist as Frenda reacted almost as fast as the boy had.

Frenda brought up her bombs to protect her face as the boy came in close, throwing a punch straight at them. There was an impact but Frenda wasted no time, using the momentary pause that the boy would have had when striking the bombs to perform her own counterattack. She dropped the bombs in her other hand, sending it up like a snake to strike the boy's throat which would leave him gasping for air before she came in for the final blow.

What she hadn't expected though was for the boy to have grabbed the bombs instead of punching them, using them to block her own strike that had been headed for his throat. Frenda winced slightly as she made contact with the hard surface as the boy took advantage of the same thing that Frenda had been trying to; the momentary pause of Frenda's pain to strike.

However, he didn't do so by attacking her straight up.

Instead he tightened his grip on the bombs and threw them to the side as Frenda went wide eyed at that one motion.

The bombs that Frenda held in her hand were in actuality handheld anti-tank missile warheads. While it seemed dangerous to be holding such a powerful explosive in her hands when it could technically explode at any moment, numerous safety devices prevented them from going off at something like a rough impact unlike her other bombs.

The only way for them to ignite was to pull the short string at the back of them which ignited the small fuse within the warhead, turning it into a missile. It would sail through the air afterwards until it struck its target and exploded. It was a fairly simple safety measure to prevent Frenda from being caught in point blank range in explosions as well as preventing them from going off at a moment's notice however that in itself served to be her downfall right in this moment.

As an amateur, the boy had likely no idea the significance of what he was doing as he threw them out of Frenda's grip. There was no way he could but the professional that Frenda was registered the consequence of the boy's actions immediately.

He threw the bombs out of her hands and as her fingers were _wrapped around the short string that caused the warhead to activate_, they naturally pulled taut as they were thrown from her grip. The strings were pulled from the warheads as they left Frenda's grip and she almost yelled out but it was too late.

The warheads, all 3 of them, ignited as the string that had been its safety device was taken away as the boy had pulled the bombs from Frenda. Without warning, flames erupted from the ends that made both Frenda and the boy cover their faces in surprise and protection as they flew in an arc, heading to the other side of the basement.

"Wha-?!"

The boy looked at them in shock as Frenda took the chance that was presented to her in its fullest. She turned, grabbing a piece of rubble that was on the ground and spun, smashing it into the boy's head.

He recoiled and hit the nearest wall, holding a hand to his forehead in both shock and pain as Frenda used her hand like a snake, ready to pierce into the boy's throat, stunning him before she turned him over and used her body weight to hold him down while she choked him to death.

That was the plan anyway as Frenda moved in close with the boy against the wall but, as if it was infectious, the boy's misfortune resulted in things going entirely differently.

The missile warheads, when ignited sailed through the air however Frenda did not necessarily know how to control their paths. They usually travelled in any which way they liked, only moving forward though and it was sheer numbers that allowed Frenda to strike her opponent. Usually though through a heat-seeking function in the warhead itself, they found their target but otherwise they travelled in a straight path.

For the warheads that had been used previously though, their heat seeking function found no available living targets in front of them as the boy had pulled them when they were facing the side. As such they had travelled in that direction but even then, there was a source of heat over there as well.

And that was found in the small balls of fire that rose from the destroyed machinery, security robots and Powered Suit MPS-79 models that Frenda had destroyed here in the basement.

With the flames near the floor, the heat seeking functions of the warheads naturally headed to their objective when they had been armed by pulling the string as Frenda had accidentally done. And said flames were hardly a large distance from where Frenda was right now as they changed their flight path, heading straight for the ground.

Frenda though had no vision of that scene as she had her back to the bombs. She moved in to strike the boy's throat with a grin of triumph on her face.

"Basically, as I said this ends n-"

The bombs exploded as soon as they hit the ground where the flames were; near the two of them. The shockwave instantly blasted Frenda towards the boy as she yelled once more. Even the boy seemed surprised as he ducked out of the way as Frenda's body was blown upwards. Her lower half slammed into the boy's upper half as her head struck the wall leaving a rather painful crater within the concrete.

Blood streamed from her forehead as she felt her body fall. Her head was in a daze and with her vision wavering, she could see the boy's mouth open in shock as he turned to look at the hole the bombs had made behind her and then at Frenda herself as she fell.

Her body had received the entirety of the shockwave of the missiles and as such, the boy was only dazed in that her lower half had slammed into his upper half. (They were pretty sure SOMETHING had pressed up against the boy's face – in between Frenda's legs – when she had been blasted upwards but they didn't want to put too much thought into it in this situation).

But even so, as Frenda descended, she realised that this moment of haziness for her and where the boy had dropped his guard was perfect to finally complete her objective.

She fell to the ground, entering a backwards roll as she did so as she rolled along the ground before righting herself. She wiped the blood from her forehead and grinned as she looked at the stunned boy.

"You've got guts. I'll give you that." Frenda said with a malicious smile as the boy pointed at the hole that was behind her.

"Th-Those were bombs! Real, actual, proper bombs! Why are you carrying them around like a purse?! Is having explosive materials on your person some kind of new Academy City fashion statement or something!?"

"D-Did you seriously just say that?! What kind of person carries around bombs as a fashion statement?!"

"Where did you even hide them? I-Is there some kind of extra dimension beneath your skirt or something? Don't tell me that if you think of an item, you can materialise it in your panties or something?"

Frenda felt her face go red as her mouth went agape. She pointed right at the boy.

"Wh-What?! Why is it that all boys have a one-track mind like that!? Basically, it's disgusting how you think of nothing but panties when it comes to a girl's set of clothing!"

"I'm only interested in them because of the explosives that you're clearing hiding inside them! Wh-when they just pressed up against me, I'm sure I felt something soft but are you actually hiding explosives in them?!"

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! I can't handle people like yoooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuu! And I thought we were purposefully avoiding that issue!"

Frenda, in a fit of rage that she felt was accompanied by the fact that she had never met a target such as this before (where while he was aware of the danger still felt as though having answers to all his relevant and also pointless questions was the priority) she couldn't let herself get caught up in his pace. That was usually her role and she wasn't going to let it be taken away!

"Basically, I hope you're prepared for this!"

Frenda reached within her skirt for the weapon that was hidden there-

"See! You're reaching for your panties! You are, aren't you? You are, aren't you?!"

"I'm not!"

Frenda, the representative of the Dark Side of Academy City clenched her teeth extremely hard as she brought out the knife that had been taped to her upper thigh (not within her panties). The boy's stance visibly changed, tensing up as stiff as a tree as Frenda approached without a moment's hesitation.

Still, she felt it was odd. While she used explosives as her main weapon, she did not rely on her ability that much when in battle. While it was a personal choice of hers, by no means did it suggest that it was weak but rather that it was her own choice to value the path of explosions than the use of any abilities that she had.

But for this boy it could not be the case. It was either his ability was useless in this situation but even then, from what Frenda had seen in numerous battles with other espers, that had never stopped anyone else before. They usually attempted to engage her with their power and while it was unknown, it always gave Frenda the chance to counterattack using their overconfidence.

But for this boy, it seemed as though such a method was not going to work. Was he by chance a Level 0? Frenda felt somewhat sorry for the boy but even so, it wasn't like she was going to lose sleep over it.

She raced forward as the boy seemed to get his senses back as he did the exact same, reaching down and grabbing the same piece of rubble that Frenda had hit him with earlier in the battle. She rose an eyebrow, thinking it was almost ironic that their weapons had changed; Frenda with the knife and the boy with the rubble but even so, it was these kinds of battles that she enjoyed the most.

(Show me a dance that I'll enjoy before I snuff that flame of life out, you pervert!)

Frenda swung the knife within her hand as the boy rose the piece of rubble to receive it. Frenda shook her head internally at the action; it was a basic defensive manoeuvre that she could easily see through. Still, she was going to enjoy watching this boy squirm as she shaved off his life like it was nothing.

She moved the knife, swinging it in her right hand as the boy moved the piece of rubble in his left. They collided in mid-air, Frenda pushing forward and the boy stepping back as Frenda used her left hand to strike in the boy's blind spot. With an open hand, she tried to grab the boy however it seemed as though he was accustomed to fighting.

He countered by slapping it away with his right before ducking and reaching in close to Frenda with that right fist clenched.

Frenda retaliated, letting the knife drop as she used the only foot that had her shoe on it (her right) to send a kick at the boy. It landed in his stomach as he gagged in pain. Frenda caught the knife with her right hand, twisted it and sent it to the boy's arm.

But, much to Frenda's surprise, it seemed as though the boy had already taken into account the surrounding area when he was fighting. He was clearly used to fighting but in what context Frenda did not know as the boy dropped down even further, closer to the ground. The blade passed through the top part of his hoodie, revealing black, spiky hair as he instantly rose his body.

His head slammed into Frenda's forehead. She stumbled, the boy throwing the piece of rubble at her face as it collided. She stepped back once more in surprise more than pain as she turned her gaze at the enemy that had advanced for her now, picking up another piece of rubble in his hand.

"Oh, I'm going to enjoy killing you."

That statement in itself seemed to make the boy pause to stiffen if only for a moment. Whatever context he was used to fighting in, it seemed he was not used to having those death threats thrown at him without hesitation while one was holding a knife but even so, he did not stop his advance.

Frenda reacted, spinning the knife in her grip as the boy attempted to strike Frenda in the face with his fist. She put up her arm to block, sending out her arm like a snake as she thrust it to the boy's exposed arm.

It seemed though that he had taken it into account as he used the piece of rubble and slammed it against the blade, changing the trajectory slightly of the thrust as it angled upwards, slicing his arm and part of his clothes. He visibly winced as Frenda spun the blade in her hand, bringing it back down to the boy's arm however he had already stepped back.

Frenda's blade swung through mid-air as she brought it back up again, swinging it horizontally as the boy stepped back to avoid the blade. Doing so though left him open as Frenda instantly reached underneath her skirt once again (she was not reaching for her panties) and chucking a small triangular object straight at the boy.

It was small, shaped like one of the Egyptian pyramid souvenirs that one bought in Egypt however it was nothing that cute. Just like its size suggested, it was called a Small Bomb, a bomb that focused entirely on the explosive force it provided and its shockwave, giving no shrapnel whatsoever. While there was only one, it was all she needed to finally end this battle with an opponent that had seemed tenacious enough.

And that all ended right now.

She brought out the detonator as the boy seemed to stiffen at seeing the object heading his way as Frenda looked at him with no emotion in her eyes as the bomb landed by his feet.

"In the end, this ends n-"

"Shit!"

The boy reacted, throwing the piece of rubble that was in his hand straight at Frenda as it struck her hand. She looked at the action almost comically as she realised what the boy had actually done, using the action as a way to advance as he struck the bomb with his foot.

Frenda instantly realised what his action was just as the boy kicked it, pressing the detonator as fast as she could react as the bomb left the ground.

The bomb exploded, the light shockwave hitting the boy full force but it seemed it had been the shockwave that had saved him; pushing him away from the centre of the small blast. He was thrown back, landing roughly on the ground, the tip of his foot burning slightly as Frenda twitched at his survival as she raced forward.

"Seriously, can you just die when I say that 'this ends now'?!"

"Are you fucking kidding me?! This is a battle with my life on the line and _that's _what you're complaining about?!" The boy yelled while on the ground and grabbing his foot as it seemed to be hurting him given that it had been closest to the explosion however Frenda didn't care at all.

She leaped into the air, turning the blade in her hand as she descended, approaching the fallen form of the boy.

"Shit!"

He rolled out of the way however Frenda had already figured that such a thing would have happened as she threw some Small Bombs at the same time, the objects clattering on the ground all around the boy as he stiffened upon seeing them all around him. His panicked mind did not realise that there was no way that Frenda would have detonated them as they were but even then, the irrationality of what was going on threw all of his thoughts into chaos.

He turned his gaze to Frenda as she descended, reaching for something within his back pocket as she plunged the knife straight into his chest. Her aim was his left lung. By piercing it and being unable to breathe properly, it would only be a quick swipe to the throat, performing the coup-de-grace and thus ending the boy's life painfully.

If by chance she got the heart as well, then that was nothing more than the result of her blow.

Whatever the case was, it wasn't like she was going to get a bonus for killing the boy yet her enjoyment of the battle came from the fact that the fight that he was putting up would only end in one way.

In his death.

Her knee pressed up against the boy's chest first as she landed on him. She brought down the knife as the boy brought up whatever he had managed to bring out of his back pocket. It was useless though as Frenda pushed forward with the blade to pierce through the skin and enter the organ-

Except that there was resistance.

Frenda frowned at that; she had chosen the path to the lung or heart that was going to result in cutting nothing but muscle. She had expected there to be slight resistance but not this much. Not to mention the lack of blood spurting from the boy's mouth when she had struck her target.

She looked down at the knife before her face contorted with absolute rage and annoyance as she looked at what had provided the resistance.

"Are you serious?! You're just pissing me off now! This is beyond funny!"

"Fuck you bitch! You think that I'm going to just let you take my life just like that?! You and your separate dimension panties?!"

"It's not the panties!"

Frenda yelled back at him as she tried to push the knife further into the boy however he pushed back with what was providing the resistance, something that Frenda had hardly thought was going to be useful in a battle such as this.

But even so, the standard convenience store wallet had provided enough resistance to stop the knife from entering the boy's body fully. Sure, it had not stopped the knife entirely but the combination of it and the boy pushing against its leather meant that it provided enough resistance to block Frenda's blow.

If she pushed further into the boy, thus pushing the blade in further, she would be able to end his life even more painfully than she had imagined but it was completing the task that was the difficult bit.

"Stop. Resisting. Already! Just! Die!"

"Shitshitshitshitshit!" The boy's voice rose into a panic as he pushed against the leather wallet while Frenda pushed against her knife, the two of them trying to either push the knife away from his heart or towards it depending on who they were.

Frenda though had truly had enough as she snatched up one of the Small Bombs lying on the ground with one hand and smashed it against the boy's head violently. The corner of its triangular pyramid form struck the boy's head sharply as a bit of blood appeared on the end and the resistance loosened a bit as Frenda grinned at that.

"This ends now!"

"How many times have you even said that!?" The boy cried out in unfairness as Frenda beat the Small Bomb against the boy's head once more, drawing blood once again. She wanted to see his face but using one hand to press down the knife (easier as she was on top) and the other to strike the boy meant that he was busy preventing the knife from entering his body with both of his hands and thus could not defend.

Frenda ploughed the Small Bomb into the boy's head again and again, drawing more and more blood. It seemed amazing that he was even still conscious however with each blow, Frenda pushed the knife closer and closer, using her body weight to assist in the effort. She felt something squelch underneath her blade as she grinned, feeling victory within her grasp.

The blade had pierced the skin, if ever slightly.

(Come on! Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on!)

Frenda thought that frantically as she beat the Bomb against the boy's head once more as she felt the knife go in a tiny bit more. The boy gagged in pain now as she saw the sweat and blood rolling down his face, something that clearly indicated that he knew that the end was near.

And that it was to happen as Frenda rose the Small Bomb once more to slam into the boy's head.

She swung it down but even then, it seemed as though the boy had something planned as he turned his head to the side, ready to receive the Bomb to the face instead of to the side of the head. It didn't matter to Frenda at all though as she sent the Bomb to the boy's face, feeling it enter some kind of hole there that her hand entered as well.

A hole? It was warm and wet, something that Frenda had a tough time describing but as she looked at the boy, her eyes went wide as she realised what he was trying to do.

The boy wasted no time though as Frenda's Bomb and her hand had entered his mouth. He bit down with all of his might.

His teeth bit down into the bone violently as Frenda screamed in pain, releasing her grip on the knife ever so slightly as she tried to worm her hand out of the boy's mouth by beating him with her fists. She felt the boy's tongue feeling her hand, not in some kind of lewd action but in order to try and find weak points in her hand like her wrist or fingers as his teeth ripped into them without letting go.

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Frenda, partially disgusted at what he was doing and screaming in rejection of the pain, brought down her hand and grabbed the boy's neck, pressing down with her body weight now. She put her thumb on the boy's neck in order to snap the bone.

The boy visibly choked yet still kept his jaw on her hand as he did something else.

He used both of his hands and pushed his wallet out of the way, throwing it and the knife imbedded in it to the side. Doing so carved a large wound in his chest as the knife had imbedded itself in his skin but even so, the scream of pain was being pressed down by Frenda.

He brought his hands back up to where Frenda was, trying to grab her face with one of them in order to make her stop so that he could breathe. She only returned the gesture though as she used her own mouth and bit down hard on one of the boy's left hand fingers.

There came some sort of muffled sound from his throat as she bit down hard while he used his left hand to squirm around in her mouth while his right tried punching her in the stomach. Frenda though only jerked her head hard to the side as she bit down, a snapping sound coming from one of the boy's left hand fingers.

The boy screamed, his left hand flapping around and striking Frenda in the mouth however it was no use as she pressed down even harder as the boy was using his right hand to strike her thighs, trying to hit them in places that were trying to hurt her however to no avail.

Frenda though only narrowed her eyes, dipping her head slightly as she let go of the boy's fingers, the hand dropping to the boy's chest as the boy seemed to lose movement in his right hand. It had pressed up against something that had been taped to her thigh but even then, she could tell he was losing strength from the way his hands were losing their frantic movements.

Frenda Seivelun felt nothing as she looked at the boy she was choking, noting how his mouth was still grabbing onto her own hand however, unlike what Frenda had done, he refused to break any of her fingers. Frenda only shook her head at that, speaking once more.

It wasn't that she felt sorry for the boy.

It was just that the moment that he had met her, she had been the one fated to kill him from the start. His life had ended the moment she had been born, and in that sense, it was almost poetic how so many lives intersected and ended with hers being born.

But even so, she still felt as though that she, the boy's judge, jury and executioner, had to say what was on her mind.

"You really are too kind and soft. Anyone else would have already tried to rip off my fingers already."

"It's…"

Despite Frenda pressing down on his throat, a croak came out as Frenda frowned. It was clear that he had something to say but to let him say it? There was nothing wrong with it but in the end, this boy's life lay in Frenda's hands. She held the ultimate decision to this boy's future so whatever choice she made would be a turning point in this boy's life.

She was silent though as she continued to apply the pressure one-handed as the boy continued what he was saying, with nothing more than a croak. In fact, it was less than such but Frenda still heard him.

"….not…..over…..yet."

Frenda frowned and thus had no time to react.

The left hand, with the broken finger suddenly shot up with the energy that it could muster, striking Frenda's face with a Small Bomb that he had grabbed, which she had scattered around the boy previously.

She jerked to the side, the pressure being lifted off the boy's throat slightly but that was all he needed to take in a deep breath of air before tightening his grip on his right hand. It had been underneath her skirt, Frenda having assumed it had fallen there when he had lost his energy however she recalled something else.

Hadn't it been striking her thighs before? She had assumed it was an attempt to hurt her but why attack her thighs? Sure, they were perfect, sexy and would stun anyone in her opinion but would he strike them if he wanted her off him?

It seemed unlikely but even then, the true intentions of the boy had been revealed.

He had grabbed something on her thigh and ripped it from where it had been placed, Frenda seeing the item in her peripheral vision as she blanched.

It was a detonator, the one that she had used previously with the first Small Bomb.

Sure, she had attached it back to her thigh at the last minute but she did not think that the boy had registered such an action since it was quick and even then, she felt as though he would focus on preserving his own life rather than on a single detonator.

He had been striking her thighs as a make shift attempt to frisk her and had been successful in that he had found his objective. But Frenda still could not make sense of it.

What good was one detonator when-

One detonator.

Connected to the Small Bombs.

All of which were scattered around her.

This bastard hadn't broken her fingers, but not because he was soft!

"You damn bastard! I got landed with a suicidal one?!"

Frenda let out that shout as she started to rise but even then, the boy on the ground grabbed the front of her blouse. She sat stunned as she was pulled towards the boy as he rose his head, slamming his forehead into hers. Blood from the side of the boy's face entered her eyes as she cried out in pain. She lost her balance on the boy as he pushed her off and ran to the side with his regaining strength.

Frenda, with stars in her eyes grit her teeth as she watched the retreating boy in her vision, before turning back in the opposite direction and seeing what had been thrown there earlier in the battle.

"As if…"

She took off in the opposite direction as she bent down and picked up the weapon that was there; the knife that had been thrown to the side by the boy previously. She pulled it out of the wallet, threw it to the side as she held the blade in her hand.

She aimed, steadied her breathing and focused on her target.

Preparations were complete.

"…I'll let you say something cooler than me!"

Frenda Seivelun threw the knife through the air just as the boy turned back to her and faced her.

"That wasn't my intention at all but when you repeat the same line as a finisher, it sort of loses its – Whoa!"

The boy's voice came out a bit clearly now that he had regained his breath but seeing the knife being thrown at him made his mind go blank. With his broken left finger though, it seemed as though he understood that Frenda was seriously aiming for some vitals as he threw himself to the side as the knife flew past, scratching his cheek as he fell through the air.

Both he and Frenda though went wide eyed as they both realised what was going to happen next.

The boy hadn't thrown himself to the side in a proper manoeuver. It was more of a drop to the side if anything to get out of the way of the knife, pulling his hands in front of him to support his drop when he landed on the ground. But thus, that meant that the detonator that was in his right hand was pointing straight at the ground, the button on it ready to be pressed when it did hit the ground.

"Sh-Shit!"

The boy reacted, throwing the detonator straight at Frenda, perhaps in an attempt to give it to someone that wouldn't detonate it on purpose when they might get caught in the crossfire and also to lower the chances that it would detonate when it hit the ground.

But even still…

"D-Did you literally just sign your death warrant by throwing it to me?! Are you suicidal? If you're so eager to die, then do it already instead of giving the job to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Frenda yelled as she saw the detonator flying through the air, using her eyes in order to determine where it would fall in its parabolic arc. Looking at it right now, it seemed as though it would land….

There! A bit away from where she was right now!

She backed away as the detonator flew through the air, looking at the boy that was watching the item in concern while not looking at her. Such a thing was perfect. While he was looking away, it would be easy for Frenda to use some more bombs that she had hidden beneath her skirt to blow the boy to kingdom come, thus completing her objective.

He had been too much of a pain in the ass for too long and it was time to bring that to an end.

Frenda Seivelun was finally going to finish this dirty job, the killing of someone that truly spent too much time in the light.

Focused entirely on the boy, she stopped and reached underneath her skirt for her weapon as the boy looked at her with shock as he saw what she was doing. No….it seemed as though it was more than that as he yelled out at her.

"Y-You idiot! The detonator!"

"What?"

Frenda turned and looked slightly up in front of her, to where the detonator should have been. From her calculations, given the size and weight, the item should have headed straight for her meaning that there was no way she wouldn't catch it. She had given herself enough time to bring out her new weapon before catching the damn thing and proceeding to kill the boy straight afterwards so what was the big problem?

Frenda saw it immediately.

The detonator wasn't in the air above her head.

It was near her knees, near the ground.

Had she miscalculated how strong the boy had thrown it? Given his size and seemingly overwhelming endurance to pain, she had felt as though he would have managed to throw it a bit harder than that! It had flown completely out of the projected path that she had calculated because the boy had thrown it a bit weaker than expected as she went agape.

"Aren't you a man?! You throw like a girl!"

"You tried to stab me, broke my finger, blew me up and almost killed me so I can throw however I like, Dimension Panties!"

"Don't give me strange nicknameeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssssssssss!" Frenda yelled out at the top of her lungs as she bent down and stretched out her hand to touch the detonator as it fell to the ground.

There was no problem with letting it fall to the ground as a whole but on the off chance it detonated then, Frenda who was closer to the bombs would be caught in the explosion somewhat and there was no way that she was going to have that!

She yelled at the top of her lungs as she reached out, the edges of her outstretched fingers touching the edges of the detonator as it fell but that seemed to be the worst thing that could have happened.

The extra pressure being placed on the item in question made it stop spinning in mid-air and fall straight down to the ground.

With the button for detonation facing the ground.

Frenda Seivelun paled and wasted no time, instantly throwing herself backwards in order to try and escape the blast that she was going to get caught up in with a pale face.

The detonator fell closer and closer to the ground as both individuals looked at it with shock on their faces, awaiting the inevitable result.

And-

"You catch like a girl!"

"I AM a girl you b-"

The detonator touched the ground button down and the Small Bombs exploded.

Both the boy and Frenda were blasted to the side with Frenda receiving most of the shockwave up front as she was thrown violently across the basement of the laboratory. Flames singed her clothes and hair but even then, the massive pressure that placed itself on her chest felt as though she had been hit by a truck.

She was thrown from the explosion with her ears ringing as she slammed against the wall. She felt something within her chest and legs crack. She gasped in pain and fell roughly to the ground, her eyes burning, her ears ringing and her body in a state that suggested that she was in no position to be moving anytime soon.

She looked up with effort as she saw flames burning in the middle of the floor where the Small Bombs had been and felt a liquid run down her face. Blood had managed to finally be drawn however even then, Frenda could not feel satisfied whatsoever.

There were no screams of pain resounding through the air, no groans or complaints. The only sound that rang through the air was the crackle of the flames of the explosion. Frenda tried to get up however whatever had broken within her chest and leg made it impossible to do so.

She screamed internally as she looked down at her wounds, noticing that one of her beautiful legs had managed to be twisted at a rather odd angle. Surprisingly she felt no pain but she figured it was because her mind was on a complete high and was unable to process it.

(Damn it! My babies were ruined by that damn bastard! I-If he survived that then-!)

Frenda stopped all thoughts as something else besides the crackle of the flames resounded through the air. She couldn't be sure however the sound resounded through the air once again as she paled while listening to it.

(No way. Even though the Small Bombs had no shrapnel, even if I was closer and received this damage, there is no way that-)

Yet the sound resounded once more.

She knew what it was.

There was no way that she could mistake it despite her ears ringing and eyes burning.

It was a footstep.

And following that footstep was a figure in a hoodie approaching the staircase leading up to the first floor with blood running from his head and body. A finger on his left hand was broken as he seemed rather dazed himself but even so, as if the figure felt someone watching him, he turned his gaze to where he felt it coming from.

And the boy that had been her target and Frenda Seivelun locked eyes together.

(Shit…)

That was the only thought that Frenda had as she felt her senses thrown into disarray. While she had provided no explanation for her actions, she felt as though the lack of reasonability behind them had shown the boy that was her opponent that morals were out the window. He was a witness to whatever it was Frenda had been doing here and that in turn meant that he would be hunted in order for him to be silenced.

Frenda had made that entirely clear in how she had not made any attempt to reason with the boy, only stating her intent to kill him from the start. She had pressed a knife against his chest and had said nothing to show any remorse or intent to stop whatsoever.

As such, in such a situation, the only thing that the boy would have to do was match it with his own lack of reasonability. Frenda was going to kill him.

And thus, to match such a situation, the boy would have to match it with the same action. In order to maintain any sort of peace, he was going to have to kill Frenda right here and now when she was in a daze and unable to move or run away.

Her thoughts were shaky but even so, realising that her fate rested in the hands of this boy, the opponent that had managed to survive was a discomforting thought.

He surely knew what it was that he had to do right now. He had no idea that Frenda was here with others but in this situation, when one person had the clear intent to kill another, responding in kind was the only thing to do.

This was the Dark Side and choices like these were made every day.

It was just that someone that had lived in the light until now was made to make a Dark Side choice.

The boy stared at her, mouth closed. She couldn't see his eyes however she knew that his hesitation was something that she would have taken advantage of in a heartbeat had she not received the damage she had. She was vaguely getting her senses back but in the time it would take to get them back she would either be unconscious from being beaten by the boy or dead by his hand.

Here he had been roped up in a Dark Side operation by nothing but his misfortune.

And now he was being made to take a life because of that exact same thing.

This boy's life truly sucked balls.

He realised it too given how his fists at his side clenched a bit tighter. The boy had realised the choice that he would have to make as he stared directly at Frenda. Whether it be out of spite or using the last of her regaining energy to do something that she felt would serve to make her have the last laugh, she stuck out her tongue as she looked at the boy.

He recoiled in surprise as he walked straight for her.

Frenda immediately tensed, spotting something over by the wall and dragged her useless body over there.

Over there were the bombs that she had dropped in their exchange near the start of their battle, the warheads that had not been activated yet and thus could be used in the battle against the boy. If she could reach them, then surely she would be able to-!

She was stopped as the boy stood between her and them, watching with unknown eyes at Frenda who stopped completely, thinking over her options. She still had a bunch of weapons, hidden beneath her skirt however given her broken ribs most likely, she would be unable to move strenuously and thus reach for them.

Not to mention that throwing whatever she had hidden within her skirt was going to be a chore in and of itself. She had her movements sealed and her life was in this boy's hands.

It was almost ironic how their positions had basically changed places; with the boy being the one that could take Frenda's life however he wanted. He was still her target but even so, her life was in his hands right now.

And given what he had seen and what Frenda had said she would do, there was only thing that was left to this boy.

Killing her.

There were numerous ways to do it in this basement, one just had to be creative. Choking her, beating her until she either lost too much blood and died, using the knife that had been lost somewhere or even using the anti-tank missile warheads that were behind the boy and blowing her up with them.

The boy stared at her once more before sighing, looking at the staircase before turning to Frenda and approaching.

She flinched, reaching into her skirt for something, anything that she could. What with some of her ribs likely broken it was going to be hard to throw anything but if she pulled past the pain then she was sure that-

"Do you need help….. with your leg?"

Frenda Seivelun blinked. She did it again as she looked at the boy, her expression clearly indicating that she needed to hear what he said again.

"Do you *cough* need help with your leg?"

The boy coughed halfway through but even so Frenda could not believe what she was hearing. Was this guy serious? It didn't seem he was joking but was this some sort of twisted method of relaxation before destroying her hopes of being saved?

On a normal occasion, Frenda would have likely used her fragile state to her advantage, waiting until Mugino or Kinuhata appeared and took this guy out but they were somewhere in this building that was nowhere near Frenda meaning that she was on her own.

But even so, she said the first thing that came to mind.

"Are you seriously that kind and soft? I thought you were when you didn't break any of my fingers but in this situation! I'm going to kill you. You've seen something here that you shouldn't have. You've been dragged into something that you can never escape from. Basically, whether it's from me or someone else, you are going to be killed either way. I'm not dead yet. Which means that I can still hunt you down. Basically, you know what that means right?"

Frenda asked her serious question at the boy as he said nothing. He rubbed the back of his head before looking at Frenda and her pitiful state on the ground before responding.

"I know that. And….and in all seriousness that frightens me to death but-"

"But what?!"

"…But it doesn't sit right with me to just leave you like that."

Frenda gaped.

She literally found nothing to say in regards to the boy in front of her.

Was he seriously being noble? Was he seriously thinking of her as someone that could not take care of herself based on what she was looking like now?

"What…the hell?"

Frenda found herself unable to say anything.

As a member of the Dark Side, she had come across situations that had made good people break down. She had seen good people make bad choices and bastards make good choices but even so, it was clear that everyone on the Dark Side had something to hide. They all had skeletons in the closet and wanting to childishly 'protect everyone' was just not possible.

So why?

Why was this boy saying that right now, when she had tried to kill him?

She had thought that he was kind and soft. She had recognised that he had lived in the light but even so, for a member of the Dark Side, this in itself was a bit too much. Everyone had a breaking point. Apply the right pressure, the right stimulus and anyone would become a villain.

Yet this boy…despite what he had seen and faced, he still had the gall to say something like that?

Frenda felt something within her twist and she understood why it was the case. This boy, when Frenda had said that she was aiming for his life, he had run away. Such was the natural reaction.

But when he had stolen her shoe, he had not used it as an offensive weapon but rather defensive. He had stripped her of her bombs but not used them against her. He had chewed on her hand yet not broken any fingers. He had thrown the detonator at Frenda in some sort of misplaced sense of trust for her. He had complained in what might have been seen as a laidback fashion.

Everything about him stated that he had been fighting for his life yet when faced with the final boss, he had laid down his weapon before striking the final blow.

Frenda represented the Dark Side, someone that had been twisted and warped by an external influence. Whether she acknowledged it or not, there had been a light within her that was shining ever so faintly that it seemed as though blowing on it would put it out.

But this boy…. this boy, when he was faced with that darkness, he had fought for his life. He had done what was necessary to survive yet not finished the job. He had taken everything that he could and used everything he had yet had been unable to finish the job.

If Frenda represented someone whose light was on the verge of going out, then this boy represented the complete opposite; someone that had lived in the light for so long that he wanted people to share in it.

He had offered a hand of salvation to Frenda yet as she lay on the ground, when faced with that light, she could only look in stark contrast to herself.

Had she lost that? Was that gone? Was that basic kindness that the boy was inappropriately showing not within her anymore?

As a member of the darkness, Frenda Seivelun had to wonder whether that was the case.

But for now, as she looked at the immovable light that the boy seemed to her, she could only feel resentment. Not because he was offering her a helping hand. Not because he had managed to survive and was able to escape.

But because he had taken that choice that many in the Dark Side had to make and rejected it without a second thought.

He had taken that turning point and thrown it away, only wishing to respond to his own heart. He had felt bad for Frenda and thus had said it didn't sit right with him to leave her in the state she was so he wasn't going to.

It was as simple as that.

It was as if the choices people made to enter the Dark Side were only excuses, nothing more than their own weak hearts refusing to find compromise and common ground.

Without realising it, by rejecting those choices and rejecting those turning points, the boy was rejecting the darkness.

And because of such, he was rejecting Frenda Seivelun even though he would have likely been ready to accept her in any capacity.

Frenda opened her mouth when faced with that, the obvious choice being to fake pain and thus kill the boy when he got too close. It would have been easy despite her wounds yet Frenda found her mouth twist in an unpleasant way as she stared at the boy.

"Piss off."

"What?"

"Basically, I said piss off!"

Frenda felt proper rage as the boy seemed visibly taken aback. Frenda grabbed her head and struggled to hold in her emotions.

"Goddamnit, I can't deal with this sort of thing at times like these! There has to be a fine line you know?! A division between the light and the dark! And I refuse to face that right now when I'm in the middle of a job!"

"H-Hang on there, Dimension Panties. What in the world are you t-"

"Basically, don't call me that! Piss off! Go away! I'll crawl back to your house and kill you in your sleep if you don't leave me alone!"

"Wh-What's up with this complete 180 in character for you!? I-Is it that time of month or something?!"

"Did you seriously just say that? Did you seriously just say that?! That's it! Come right here so I can nail you as hard as I want! You won't come back from this you asshole!"

The boy stepped back in pure shock and surprise as he looked back at the girl that was shouting profanities at him for some reason before looking at the staircase that led to the upper floors. While it was indeed the best choice to go over there and seek safety, the boy still felt as though there was something that he could do in order to relieve the girl from her pain in some way even though she didn't want it.

Frenda watched agape though as the boy did his next action, undoing his belt and leaving it on the floor in front of him. Frenda had no idea what he was doing but as he stepped back, it was clear that his intentions were pure instead of having him take off his pants in order to rape her.

"I-I'll leave this here. You can set the bone if you use a belt I heard so-"

Frenda felt something inside of her snap when she was faced with that kindness, that light that rejected her as a being of the darkness. It was slowly pulling her in and she felt as though it would only be a light push before she decided that living a life like the boy's was the proper way to live.

She was balancing on the edge of a knife, stuck between choosing light over darkness and even now, she felt important yet at the same time dangerous questions fill her head.

If she had met this boy earlier, would she have joined the darkness?

If they had met in a different time and different place, would they have been friends?

For someone that was a part of the darkness, those questions were their kryptonite, questions that made them doubt their own existences and roles within the darkness.

For better or for worse, Frenda Seivelun had grown accustomed to her position in the darkness. So there was only one thing she had to say.

"Piss off! Get out of here you damn asshole! If I see you again, I'm going to load some much explosives into your ass that people are going to compare Hiroshima to you!"

"Y-You don't have to get that edgy about it. I mean-"

"Leave!"

The boy, seemingly startled grabbed the anti-tank missile warheads that she had dropped with her other hand that were on the ground and headed for the staircase, ascending it while at the same time giving a look back at the girl that was on the ground.

"Are you sure?" He shouted.

"Come back here and find out!"

That was enough of a threat for the boy to leave Frenda in the basement of the laboratory as she sighed and put a hand to her forehead.

She realised that the actions that she had taken and the things that she had said were different for her and seemingly out of character. But even so, she felt as though that boy was a dangerous existence in and of itself. Frenda did not know if people changed instantly but even so, her sudden outburst and anger had seen different for her, even to Frenda herself.

Had she been that intent on rejecting the light?

Had she been that averse to engaging in something that could be called pure?

Frenda did not want to think about it as she lay on the ground, eyeing the object that the boy had dropped. It seemed as though it was mocking her slightly, edging her closer towards it as she groaned, looking at her leg.

Logically speaking the best way to help her leg would be to set the bone meaning that if she wanted one of her babies to be alright at the end of the day, she needed to heal her leg ASAP.

With resentment in her heart, she moved her broken body to the belt on the ground, picking it up and tying it around her leg. Doing so hurt both her chest with the movements and her leg as she withheld her scream of pain, pushing and tightening the belt to act as a support and a sling as popping was heard from her leg as she set it in place.

She leaned against the wall when she was done, seeing that the leg was in far worse shape than she thought but given the medical advances within Academy City, she should be up and about within a day or two. While she had that comforting thought in mind, it was hardly something that was relaxing as she could only click her tongue in an action that was very un-Frenda like.

She valued her own life and what she had made for herself in the darkness. Frenda was by no means perfect but at the same time, she felt as though there were things that she didn't want to change about her as well.

But…was her role in the darkness one of them?

When faced with the light that the boy had given off, did she want to embrace that or not? Did she want to continue to live in this hell while there were lives such as the boy's being lived out there?

The darkness was here to stay.

But then again...the light that that boy had given off had seemed so appealing that Frenda could not deny an attraction to it. What was life in the pure light like? When darkness and light had clashed, it had resulted in this, with the darkness at the mercy of the light only after the light had been at the mercy of the darkness.

Was that the relationship between the two forces all along?

Constantly fighting out against each other until one took dominance?

But even then, it had been the light that had ended the fighting. The kind and soft thoughts of the boy had not ended the battle, meaning that it was surely going to be continued elsewhere at some time and place.

If that was the case, then was it the darkness that had always fought, the darkness that had engaged the light?

Wasn't it the light that had true peace and only retaliated?

The darkness was here to stay but it seemed as though the light wasn't going anywhere either.

It was an endless paradox of what would end up pushing through and emerging victorious first given conflict.

Dangerous questions emerged in her mind for one living in the darkness however, Frenda could not push them out of her mind as she focused on the issue. The darkness was a part of her identity and there was no pushing that away.

Could light and dark coincide without destruction? It was impossible to tell. Who would be the victor in their eternal struggle? Also, impossible to tell.

However, among those dangerous questions and possible answers that Frenda considered as a member of the darkness looking directly at the light, she came to her own conclusion.

"Well…"

Frenda Seivelun spoke, looking down at the belt that had been left behind for her as she scoffed. But even so, despite it, she felt as though she was smiling while looking at the belt that the boy had left behind.

"Basically, it seems as though the light won this round."

* * *

**And this is done!**

**What a whopper! AND THESE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE ONE-SHOTS MR QUESTION MARK! ONE-SHOTS! You know, little short things that are either fun or tell some sort of message?!**

**Well, even it was a bit long, did you see the message that was inside it? For Touma (yes, it was him), when it comes to the darkness, there is that fine line usually between him and whoever is ruling it. While he has faced Accelerator, Rensa and the Hound Dogs, never has he actually faced one the true Big Bads, the people behind the scenes.**

**And never do we really get into the head of someone who stays in the darkness despite what Touma says. While we get a look into Accelerator and Hamazura for their changes during their ordeals in the dark side, it was them that eventually realised that they were in the wrong, for killing the Sisters and never helping anyone.**

**But what about people that were stuck in the darkness in the first place? People like Rensa, the Original Kakine Teitoku and Frenda are examples of this, people that seem as though they are rooted in the Dark Side with no way out as it is their personal choice. Mugino here might be the exception because of OT 22 and Kinuhata seems as though she's only a proxy of the darkness now so I felt as though Frenda was the best way to do this through.**

**Basically (haha), what I was going for was the question of not 'what would have happened if I had met Touma earlier?'. No illusions were broken in this chapter so that question can't be asked. What is more important here is the pushing of dark against light. Here we have two people, one in the darkness and one in the light. If they went up against each other, from a standpoint of their sides who would win?**

**Having Touma vs. Frenda then was the main point in this mainly because their interactions with each other could easily switch between comedic (seriously, where does Frenda hide all of her weapons?) and serious when it's clear that they are out to kill each other. In the last scene, where Touma confronts Frenda with kindness then, she rejects him not as 'Frenda Seivelun' but rather as a member of the darkness.**

**If he had broken her illusions though, things might have gone differently.**

**There were several different things and metaphors included here if you are interested (such as the clothing) to represent darkness vs. light but in the end (haha) I hope that you enjoyed the standpoint of the two characters representing their sides and how the two can push up against each other in this way and what the darkness (Frenda) thinks of the light (Touma). In this sense, the paradox title is extremely important as neither side gives up for dominance. Although the darkness represented by Frenda was pushing for victory, Touma won in the end but didn't finish the fight, starting the cycle all over again. In this way while the darkness has lost, did the light win? Those are the sort of questions that were risen in this one-shot from Frenda's point of view.**

**But if you just thought of it as "Frenda vs. Touma?! YES PLEASE!" then I'm happy as well.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please.**

**And I'll see you when I'll see you and I won't if I don't.**

**I swear that I had April 1st there for a proper reason but I forgot it. Not to mention that the original idea was Touma vs. ITEM where he accidentally drives them off a cliff in the end before I decided to get a better look into darkness vs. light via Frenda and Touma.**


	36. The Pathogen

**Well here we are once again with the requests! With NT 17 on the horizon (I seriously can't wait!), Pokémon Sun and Moon coming out (this will take up a lot of my time as I Catch 'em all) and with the Pokémon the Series XYZ ending, it feels like a couple of my journeys have ended but more have started! With the preview of NT 17 having being released and with the status of Kamisato Kakeru being revealed for what it is, the only thing that we can do is wait the ultimate conclusion and the novel that is NT 17! I hope that many of you look forward to it as much as I have. **

**You know though, whenever I have a stockpile of ideas, I always end up creating heaps of word documents and then putting the ideas on them, leaving them in the backburners for a while before addressing them again when I get to them. This is particularly the case with requests so here we are once again with those!**

**This request came in via PM, from Master Knight (you remember, the one that asked for the story The Rumour) with another idea looking at perhaps, in greater detail the harem antics and possibilities of Touma. I have no idea if this is a story that can be 'continued' like The Rumour, so I'll leave it sort of ambiguous so that it can continue for those that want it to or just leave it at that at the end of the day.**

**Again, since the request came from a PM meaning that there was a lot of talking back and forth, I won't give you an idea of what the request was about, only leaving you with this one thought here.**

**Here is the usual Q &amp; A:**

**seiker: Now that you say it like that, I can only think of Frenda as being nothing more than a death flag in itself. It was only Railgun that we got to see more of her but she was already dead by that time so I guess maybe Kamachi planned to have her 'impact' the series in a greater way with that death being known in hindsight. At least that was how the Afterword in NT 12 felt to me. Although, RIP Frenda.**

**wildarms13: I saw your comment so don't worry about it! And yes, I am pretty sure I am not Kamachi. And no problem, seeing your praise and how you liked it was more than enough for me to really feel good about what I posted. Thanks to you as well who also read the whole thing!**

**Guest: Ah, right! Thank you for the edits! Hopefully I can remember them when I re-post it up and the like. I also know last chapter was set on April Fool's, it was kind of the purpose of the entire thing. As for what Touma wanted with Garrison, the main thing that he wanted was to return the USB that was accidentally mailed to him which was addressed to Garrison. The address would have been wrong in the mail and Touma just wanted to return it.**

**whwsms: Thank you for the kind words. Originally last chapter was going to be Touma vs. ITEM in a non-serious way but I felt that the word length would have gone overboard a bit there for a one-shot. Whatever the case, I'm glad that you liked it. Mind you though, Frenda didn't get any sleep the night after the job because of how pissed she was. Your idea though has been noted and filed away for future reference!**

**AleisterCrowley: …A surprisingly suspicious username if I do say so myself! Hahaha, just kidding! As to answer your question though, yes. Touma's face did get into contact with 'that bit' but Frenda didn't get aroused mainly because her mindset was entirely focused on finishing the job rather than anything else that was happening around her. Mind you though, she noted herself that she did not want to address the issue when Touma brought it up.**

**malandy: Looking back, I think the idea that it was a 'Joke Job' was my intention but I'm not entirely sure now… And yeah, Touma is both lucky and unlucky. Lucky in that he survived but unlucky in the sense that he had to put up with something like that in the first place!**

**naruhinasakufan1: Haven't had time to PM you so…. Sorry! Mind you though, when it comes to those requests I think I'm doing them both; the main reason being that you posted one as a Guest and then another under your username. You managed to find a loophole in the system! That division between Touma and Frenda being less as people and more as them representing their respective sides was the core of the entire last chapter so I'm glad that you noted it. It was really important so thank you for your kind words! And I'll be sure to get into your story when you next update for sure! It's more than enough to repay your kindness for getting on and reading my own stories.**

**pop2ww: FEELS BOMB. I can say with certainty that this is perhaps the funniest thing I have read today. Childhood memories though are the bane of practically everyone so whenever they are discussed I think that everyone gets a little bit embarrassed. Unless you're talking about Touma. There's no embarrassment there. Touya's and Shiina's emotions were nothing more than the darkness behind the life of Touma himself so I felt as though they had to be noted. Everything that you raised is more than adequate in getting across what was needed. Touya and Shiina perhaps suffered more than Touma himself to an extent. After all, they had to ask all those questions that you did and had to bear with the decisions that they made knowing that it would hurt Touma. But unlike with Touma, the pain that they felt would not have gone away until they saw his smile and heard his words a few years later. It's also sad in that Touma has no idea what his life with his parents was like: the only happiness that Touya and Shiina knew while he was with them no longer means anything to him so that silent pain is still present even now. ….A-And I think you discovered the loophole in the requests and who asks for them! *glances shiftily to the left and right*. As for Frenda, she really was killed too soon. And the division between the Light and Dark is definitely nothing more than category that allows for excuses. The Dark especially feel that they can get away with what they do because they belong in that category which makes the Light seem so restricted and fragile in comparison. As for where Touma lies…. It depends on how you look at it I would find. Touma fights for his life an d for others but not because he is especially good: it's just what he feels is the right thing to do. I would imagine that he has a foot in both sides, ready to leap into the Dark and the Light if need be to save someone else although at minimal cost to others. But seeing how Touma acted in contrast to herself, Frenda herself was more scared than she could say. Those questions that you raised are the ones that Frenda would have asked as she continued down the road of the Light and ultimately would have broken the sense of identity she had formed on that side of AC. And do they look hot!? I just sort of imagine in my head how they look and then apply the best 'character' to suit it. Speaking of the characters though:**

**Suzanna Royceston: Think of Haku Yowane the Vocaloid here except a little bit older and wearing more formal clothes. I created Suzanna and her backstory thinking that she had an 'angelic image' but at the same time the mother's love that she had for her child prevented her from seeing the threat that was in front of her. Haku needs to be a bit older for Suzanna's image to apply but the youthful face was more benefitting of someone of say 20 or 21 when she was in fact older. Contrast that image to her clothes that speak of nothing more than business and you have Suzanna; someone who knows she can use her looks for her own will but doesn't think about it because of her dedication to her family and the like.**

**Red Glasses: Ah, no sorry. There will be no Special this year.**

**Agent Nine: Ah yes that would sound like a good idea as a whole although you have to remember that Frenda was basically entirely hostile when she was conscious. If she hadn't been I could imagine Touma calling an ambulance but not wanting to take her there himself in case she woke up and killed him. The darkness though was strong with Frenda so escaping it is not that easy!**

**Prof. Pancakes: Welcome! And thank you so much for your kind words! Your suggestion has been taken under advisement and has been added to the list so please be patient! And you thought that they were all OVA materia1? Even the feels ones!? Thank you so much!**

**Before we begin, I'd like to thank three people.**

**The first is PokeRescue18, my beta reader. How long have we been doing this? I've forgotten yet you've stuck with me this entire time so thank you.**

**The next is you, the reader. I want you to know that your contribution is valued more than you think so don't sell yourself short about it!**

**And the final thanks is to Master Knight. There are some pretty good ideas there so check out his story A Certain Fed Up Boy, if you want a deeper look into his mind. Also, the idea of this chapter has already been done by him in his story 'A Certain Boy And A Certain Infection' if you want to check it out this idea in a longer and proper story form instead of a one-shot. He's (assuming that Master Knight here is a male) given me permission to do this so I really want to thank him for giving me this chance.**

**And from me I hope that you look forward to and enjoy this chapter.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

Reverse Psychology Gigolo. _Intentional_Injection_of_an_Incurable_Disease_–_First_Victim._

"Modern technology has no cure for it. It is a pandemic spreading slowly through the globe, a contagion that cannot be silenced even by the WHO and their team of scientists working hard at trying to understand it. Academy City itself is baffled by it and the cause, while the Disease itself only continues to spread as doctors and scientists waste their time trying to understand it."

Those serious words came through the streets of District 7 as a blond haired boy wearing sunglasses spoke in all seriousness. While he was walking rather casually, the tone of his voice and gait only suggested that this was no laughing matter.

But it seemed the heavy words would only continue, the dark revelations being made only being further explained by the boy next to him, a blue haired boy that had a piercing in both of his ears.

"There is no protection. Our antibodies have not developed to the extent of countering the Disease but even then, what we know of it is that even through natural selection and eventual immunity to normal diseases, this will continue to spread despite it. It transcends beyond the boundaries of rational knowledge, striking one of major organs and deeply affecting the brain beyond help. It threatens the reproduction of the world, and if we leave it too long, the only thing that will result will be the end of the world as girls, and probably eventually guys too, will succumb to it."

A heavy silence came over the two boys as they nodded at each other while walking down District 7 streets in Academy City.

"It has only one name." said the blond haired boy.

"And it brings shivers to any who hears it." Said the blue haired one as he nodded in a serious manner, taking in everything and understanding the weight of his words.

It seemed though all seriousness that they had was lost as the black spiky-haired boy behind them looked up from the piece of paper that he was holding. Actually, it was a large collection of paper, bundled together in a rough stack that was loosely stapled together. It gave the sense that the paper itself had been put together in a hurry but the boy that looked up from it was hardly pleased.

After all, everything that they had said was written on the first page of that report. They had given it to him during lunch break, something that he had read, wanted to read during class but did not before finishing it as the boys had begun talking.

And he finished what they were saying as he read out loud what followed given that the boys had been saying what was in the report.

"The 'Kami-yan Disease'?" Kamijou Touma said that with a deadpan expression as both Tsuchimikado Motoharu and Aogami Pierce let out shrieks of pain. They covered their ears with their hands.

"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Even the name is taboo for those that understand its severity in the medical community! Yes! The Kami-yan Disease! The Disease with no cure nyah~!" yelled Tsuchimikado as he clenched a fist.

"Antibodies don't work against it because when it gets you once, you're hooked for life! The major organ it strikes: the heart! The chemical reactions that produce love in the brain are biased to the being that is Kami-yan so the brain refuses to love anything else beyond Kami-yan! It truly is a sickening condition isn't it Tsuchimikado?"

"Indeed! At this rate, every girl and maybe even some guys in the world will be after Kami-yan, wanting to bear his children meaning that they will not even consider getting other guys laid! The reproduction rate will decline exponentially as women pursue only one man nyah~!"

They both let out that shout as Kamijou Touma deadpanned, looking down at the report in his hand before turning and heading in a particular direction.

"Well this can be thrown out." He said in a dead voice with no emotion. He started to put the report that he had been given, which had detailed this 'Disease' into the nearest bin.

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttttt! I spent an entire week on that! I didn't do my homework and got minimal sleep doing research and collecting samples!" yelled Aogami as Kamijou turned to face him, throwing the report on the ground. He stomped on it, pointed at it before facing Aogami with a face that suggested that he wasn't pleased.

"Screw that! You wrote an entire report on something that doesn't exist!? Harems?! Love!? Where do you guys get these damn ideas about me?! Do I look like a harem protagonist to you?! I'm a normal high school student! And shouldn't you have been doing your homework Aogami Pierce!? Didn't you see Komoe-sensei's face when you gleefully declared you hadn't? She was almost crying! And I really want to learn what kind of research and 'samples' you collected!"

Kamijou gave what was a reasonable response as Aogami tackled him, throwing him off the report as he picked it up, brushing it off and making sure all 143 pages were still there. Kamijou on the other hand in order to destroy the evidence tackled the boy and the two of them entered a rather comedic brawl with smoke coming from where the two of them fought.

Tsuchimikado only stood at the side, putting his hands on his hips and sighing slightly as the report flew from the brawl and landed in front of him. He picked it up, leafing through it as he spoke while standing as an impartial observer as shouts and sounds of impacts came from the brawl in front of him.

"But in all seriousness….it feels as though this contagion goes beyond human understanding. If your luck is the one thing that you have nothing of, it's replaced by having an infinite amount of encounters and flags being raised."

"Tsuchimikado, I swear that if you start getting into this as well, I'm going to – bfhfhhff?! That is it Aogami Pierce! I'll show you the experience that I've learned from all of Fukiyose's wrestling mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooves!"

Kamijou grabbed Aogami by the waist and out of nowhere performed a German Suplex. The technique though, being performed by an amateur was sloppy, resulting in Kamijou slamming his own head on the ground as well. The two idiots rolled on the ground, clutching their heads in pain.

"He's right though Kami-yan! No matter what the genre, the trope or age, when it comes down to it, you have an absurd amount of encounters! Keep it in your pants why don't you?! Can't you give some of that flag raising power to me?! Is it transferred through your fist or something?! Punch me in the face Kami-yan! Do it! I want to be popular! Punch meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" shouted Aogami who recovered rather quickly.

Kamijou stood up as well, snatching the report out of Tsuchimikado's hands as he pointed at it with an outraged expression on his face.

"Shut up! You think that this sort of thing is amusing?! Sure, I might know a lot more girls than guys but it's hardly my fault that my misfortune means that whenever I come across one on the street, I'll end up fighting for my life! If anything, I want peace! Can't the chaos of the world give me a break?"

"That's the point nyah~! And the worst thing is, you don't even try! It's like the oblivious flag maker ability or something. The denser you are when it comes to making the flags, the more you are going to raise." Noted Tsuchimikado as Aogami merely nodded and crossed his arms.

"It's getting to the realm where we have to nip the problem in the bud! This is for the safety of the world when it comes to allowing for future reproduction! If we don't control this problem, no girl is going to be searching out other men as you would have complete control! Goth lolis, lolis, maids, onee-sans, twintail girls, short bob girls, library girls, large breasts, small breasts, tsunderes, yanderes, kuuderes, goddesses, fairies, Level 0s, Level 1s, Level 2s, Level 3s, Level 4s, Level 5s, teachers, student council presidents, bunny girls, supernatural girls, magical girls, mecha girls, ghost girls, cool headed leader types, anaemic girls, nurses, cat girls, cat girl maids, swimsuits girls, senpais, kouhais, Judgment, Anti-Skill, childhood friends, spectacled girls, ojou-samas, poor girls, homeless girls, ahoge girls, kneesocks, sailor uniform girls, naked girls, secretaries; soon there will be no one that is left out of your control! And the worst thing is that you don't know that you're doing it! This is the major problem that the world is facing right now! You and your harem need to be limited! As your friends, it is our duty to monitor this and keep it under control!"

"What's with that extensive list!? Are you telling me that you idiots have gotten it into your heads that no matter what I do, I'm going to attract anything as long as it's a girl!? Hah! This Kamijou-san is NEVER going to be that lucky…. Uhhh, that really, really did a number on my self-confidence."

Kamijou seemed to enter into a slump. Tsuchimikado gave him a pat on the back.

"You have to admit it though Kami-yan. You and your harem are something that, if left alone will be even more dangerous than World War 3 nyah~."

Kamijou gave him a look that would have made anyone wary of Kamijou's intentions however the sunglasses boy merely grinned as Kamijou asked a careful question.

"You say harem. Where is your evidence? I demand proof right now and we'll see who's right!"

"What about Index?" Aogami countered Kamijou's question instantly. Kamijou gave a deadpan stare to the blue haired boy.

"She's a friend and someone that I need to look out for otherwise she's going to end up doing something so crazy science related that it's going to end up on all the news sites! I can't just leave her alone if for the safety of Academy City!"

Kamijou left the fact that she was a freeloader out of his response however he could tell that behind those sunglasses Tsuchimikado was grinning evilly. He knew just as much as Kamijou did the reason why Index was staying with him but the horrors of interpretation meant that in the wrong context, their relationship could be taken in a number of ways.

"What about that Tokiwadai girl that embraced you during the end of summer vacation?" asked Tsuchimikado as Kamijou frowned before realising what he meant.

"Are you talking about Misaka? No, no, that had nothing to do with romantic attachment. The only thing that I ended up getting involved in then was a crazy case of some retard who thought it would be OK to steal someone else's face." Kamijou gave a smooth response as the other boys looked at each other, having no idea what in the world he was talking about (well Tsuchimikado did but faked ignorance) however pushed past the issue.

"What about Himegami-yan?" asked Aogami to which Kamijou looked as though he had been hit in the face with a fish.

"Are you serious? What flags did I even raise then!? Where did you get that idea from!?" he yelled as Aogami seemed to realise that Kamijou's inability to look at a maiden's heart properly was an ability in and of itself.

"What about Kumokawa-senpai?" Tsuchimikado asked.

"Are you guys grasping at straws?! What part of our relationship even suggested that she likes me?!"

"Komoe-sensei?"

"With all of the sadistic homework that she gives me and the private lessons that end up with my brain screaming for no more!?"

Aogami wanted to say something about those 'private lessons' and how their small teacher was often smiling whenever she mentioned giving Kamijou those lessons but it was Tsuchimikado that put forward another girl that had supposedly fallen victim to Kamijou's 'charms'.

"Fukiyose then. You have to admit that she at least has a thing for you nyah~."

"Are you kidding me?! That Iron Wall Girl?! With all the punishment she gives me, I have a hard time calling that 'love'!"

"Damn it Kami-yan, at least admit that there is one who has an interest in you! Admit that the harem that you are building up transcends time and space to enter into a realm of pure utopia filled with the soft flesh of girls!" cried Aogami.

"I won't do it! I won't! All of the evidence that you've given is shot! There is nothing AT ALL to suggest that I have an effect on girls that you bastards are saying! Even if I tried, I could never get a girl to like me so it goes without saying what happens if I don't try! This Kamijou-san has no ability whatsoever in that department, no matter how much I want to. Being the confident playboy that picks up chicks is a status that isn't suited to someone filled with misfortune like me. That fact alone should tell you that this 'Kami-yan Disease' that you guys are always on about hardly exists!"

While that comment, viewed from an external perspective might have seemed as the final point in the argument for the boys, the smiles that came across the faces of Aogami Pierce and Tsuchimikado Motoharu only sent a chill up the spine of Kamijou Touma. The two of them leaned in close to the boy as they started whispering while Kamijou looked between the two of them with an intensely bad feeling pricking on the end of his neck.

"How about we put that theory to the test then?" asked Aogami.

"Huh?"

"Basically Kami-yan, if what you say is true then even if you try and pick up chicks intentionally, you won't get them at all to like you. Thus, if you try and pick up chicks and they don't gain an attachment to you then I think that's evidence that the Kami-yan Disease doesn't exist nyah~."

"Wait just a minute there. Are you suggesting-"

"Let's begin the world saving hypothesis then!" Aogami spread out his arms as if he were free from some kind of bond and spun around in a dramatic fashion that gained the attention of people everywhere however he didn't seem to notice as he leaned in close.

"Kami-yan, pick a girl, any girl. And your task, should you choose to accept it, is plain and simple. Hit on her. You can set the time limit yourself but by the end of the time limit, if the girl hasn't fallen head over heels for you, then we concede that the Kami-yan Disease doesn't exist. However, in the event that you gain another member of your glorious harem, then you have to be the one to admit that the Kami-yan Disease exists and that you have a harem. Capisce?"

Kamijou Touma blinked once however the smile that came onto his lips was something that a Demon Lord of an alternate world might have sported when they had finally moved onto the final steps of their plan for world domination. Victory was in his grasp and he could taste it himself.

Even if he intentionally hit on a girl, trying to be as playboy-like and smooth as possible, there was no way that a loser like him could _possibly _get a girl to like him.

He felt like committing suicide just for that one thought filling his brain however the fact that Tsuchimikado and Aogami had been over this fictitious Disease over and over again, with there being no way out, Kamijou had no reason not to accept.

This fictitious Disease that had apparently made all of the girls in the class (save for one) fall for him and made all of the boys in the class despite him slightly jealous because of how he picked up chicks like a magnet.

This fictitious Disease that apparently grasped any girl that Kamijou met and made them his with a few exceptions.

This fictitious Disease that captured girl's hearts and threatened the population of the world as because most girls would fall for him, he would end up being the only one girls would save their virginity for and thus mean that the birth-rate would fall exponentially.

It was time to prove this Disease and thus the statement that 'Kamijou Touma has a harem' was completely wrong.

And all he had to do was fail in picking up one girl, while trying to do so. As long as that criteria were met, then Aogami Pierce and Tsuchimikado Motoharu were willing to state that there was no such thing as the Kami-yan Disease and thus he didn't have a harem.

And for a misfortune loser such as Kamijou Touma that had no experience in picking up girls or attracting them, how hard would it be to fail to pick up a single girl?

Thus, there was only one answer the personification of misfortune; the normal high school boy Kamijou Touma could give.

He held out his hand and grasped Aogami's with it and merely spoke with complete confidence in his inability to pick up chicks showing in his voice.

"You're on."

* * *

The rules had been set.

Aogami Pierce and Tsuchimikado Motoharu would have an observer role in all of this however if Kamijou turned around, he was sure that he would be able to see the two boys in the crowd of District 7. They were mixed in and hard to see given Tsuchimikado's skills as a spy and Aogami's skills as a stalker but that only meant that Kamijou had no idea where they were.

The rules were simple.

Kamijou Touma had 10 minutes to make a single girl fall for him. There had been much debate about the criteria that suggested one had 'fallen for him' with lots of arguing, consulting gal games for reference material and possible criteria, punches and shouting about whether contrasting bunny girl outfits for lolis and onee-sans added to their appeal or lessened it (Kamijou wasn't sure how this was related in hindsight but whatever) however they had come across a set amount of criteria that had to be met in order to determine whether one had fallen for him.

Firstly, and perhaps one of the more important points, the girl had to be someone that Kamijou did not know. If according to his two friends the Kami-yan Disease had already taken effect on them, then this would make the entire exercise pointless.

Thus, he had to hit on a stranger for 10 minutes.

Second, what constituted as someone 'falling for him' had to result in a fierce blush to the face that was neither related to embarrassment or anger, which had to last for at least 30 seconds after Kamijou departed from the girl or result in the girl watching his retreating back with almost tears in her eyes for at least a minute. Aogami and Tsuchimikado had to be the ones to monitor that as Kamijou was not allowed to turn around as it would defeat the point of being the 'handsome stranger'.

Third, the only things that could cause such a reaction were either words or physical contact. There were limitations to the contact of course as Kamijou suggested that grabbing the girl's breasts or making lewd remarks would result in a fierce blush (Aogami had tried it when he had suggested it and the Delta Force had been chased around by Judgment for a bit because of it) but the second criteria of how the blush had to arise out of genuine feelings for the boy instead of anger or embarrassment restricted such actions.

Within the 10-minute time limit, Kamijou could say or do things that resulted in a blush of embarrassment or anger however the important point was the criteria of the girl blushing for reasons not having to do with anger or embarrassment for 30 seconds after he left or watching tearfully his retreating back for a full minute.

Still, although that criteria had been set out, Kamijou Touma still felt bad as he walked in District 7, looking for his prey.

Because that was essentially what he had turned a normal girl into: prey in order to satisfy his own selfish wishes. He wasn't a playboy and part of him felt as though seeing girls as nothing but 'conquest targets' was an insult to them in part. They weren't characters of a game or whatever, these were real people that had their own lives and paths in such.

It pained Kamijou somewhat that he was stepping on the respect those people were owed by treating them as nothing but conquest targets but the fact that he had the utmost confidence in his ability to fail meant that he didn't have to worry about any lingering attachments.

In the end, the one that would fall would be him. He would be regarded as the jerk he was acting out to be by the girl he would hit on and in turn, become the bad guy in this. That in itself suited him fine as that was what he felt of himself right now.

In the quest to make those two idiots admit that there was no such thing as the Kami-yan Disease and that he didn't have a harem, Kamijou was willing to at least put down his pride and be hated by someone else for what he was doing. But it by no means was a noble action. In fact, he knew that it was entirely the opposite.

He sighed as he considered such. While he was OK with being thrown to the side by someone, the fact that he could be hurting someone else because of it pained him. In that sense, he was against this entirely but then again, he could tell that there were two idiots grinning behind him as they figured that those would be his thoughts.

(D-Damn it! I'll just fail in this entirely and get the girl to hit me as much as she likes for disrespecting her! So in the end, nothing is going to change for me except I'll be bashed by someone I don't know. Isn't this just a magician or esper battle without the fight!? Such misfortune!)

Whether it was because he wasn't looking where he was going or merely because he was too deep in thought to consider looking where he was going, he collided with someone as the shock of doing so made Kamijou take a step back however resulted in him tripping backwards.

"K-Kyah!?"

The person that Kamijou had hit fell backwards as well as the contents of what they were carrying fell to the ground and scattered everywhere. Probably because the incident was because of Kamijou's stupidity and had nothing to do with them, people merely watched on as the two people fell to the ground, deciding not to help.

Kamijou had no grudge against them for doing so; after all it was his fault and thus he had to take responsibility. He looked apologetically at the person that he had run into.

The winter uniform of Tokiwadai Middle School stood out on the girl and made Kamijou shudder in the fact that he had run into someone at the same school as Misaka Mikoto. Putting aside the fact that maybe this girl fit the 'ojou-sama' image more than Biri Biri, Kamijou got a good look at the girl who had fallen on her butt.

She didn't have blonde hair, that much was clear. It was a dark black, parted near the forehead and showing off a rather prominent forehead indeed. While her body seemed a bit too curvaceous to belong to a middle schooler, it was clear that she had some growing to do and the figure of the girl did seem to in fact belong to a middle schooler.

She had a fan in one hand along with a small piece of paper as immediately Kamijou responded to his mistake of running into her. Come to think of it, why had she run into him as well? Hadn't she been paying attention either?

Still thinking it was more his fault, Kamijou immediately stood up and naturally walked over to the girl, picking up her stuff in the process.

"I-I'm so sorry! Are you OK miss?" he asked as he held her hand to make sure that it wasn't sprained or anything. He had her bag underneath one of his other hands and looked up at her, seeing that she was slowly getting her bearings back after he knocked her to the ground. Yet, despite his focus supposed to be on the girl, there was something else that caught his eye behind her.

And that was the grinning faces of Aogami Pierce and Tsuchimikado Motoharu giving him the thumbs up.

Kamijou went pale and felt as though his heart would stop as he looked at the girl with a pale face. Were they serious in that they wanted him to hit on her!? After what he did to her? There was no way that such a cliché encounter would end up with this so-called 'Kami-yan Disease' infecting her, no matter what he did!

…Which meant that this was perfect.

Victory through Kamijou's failure was in his grasp.

Still, his face was pale as he stared at the girl, who opened her eyes and saw Kamijou's hand touching hers. She looked at it in surprise however her surprised expression gradually changed into one of anger as she yelled at the boy while pulling her hand away.

"H-How dare you?! You think that I, Kongou Mitsuko, would want any help from you after you knocked me to the ground?! Watch where you're going!"

Kamijou's face almost pouted at that. It was true, he wasn't looking where he was going but it took two to tango and it was also her fault despite her words. Somehow, had he hurt her pride by being one also to blame yet treating her like she was some kind of helpless maiden? Perhaps she felt as though she had some form of independence or strength of image that had been ruined when she had been knocked to the ground?

Kamijou felt as though he was getting a better picture of the girl in front of him with just a few of those words however he said nothing, only staring at her as his own mind turned.

(Right. I've gotten an idea of who this Kongou-san is but what do I say to her!? I have to at least give an attempt to act like a playboy but what the hell do I say!? Why am I faltering at the critical point already!?)

An unnatural sweat came over his entire body as Kongou glared at the boy, noting that he wasn't saying anything before frowning.

"What? Do you have anything to say? Is there something on my face?" Kongou demanded upon seeing that Kamijou was not saying anything and merely staring at her face. Kamijou opened his mouth, only going upon instinct and saying the first thing that came to his mind.

(This is it! Watch this spiky-haired failure as a person crash and burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!)

"Ah, no. I…I was just thinking that I must have died and gone to heaven. Otherwise, I would never have seen a face as beautiful as yours."

Kongou blinked however a hint of red came to her cheeks from the compliment as now it was her turn to look at Kamijou without saying anything and with a gaping mouth. Kamijou looked just as stunned however for a completely different reason.

(So lame! So laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame! I want to kill myself for saying that! Kill me now!)

What he had said was pure embarrassing and he was fighting down a blush that was coming to his face, trying to keep an expression of pure seriousness in its place. The girl though seemed to regain her composure, this time her face being much more pissed.

"Excuse me? Do you think that's funny? You knocked me to the ground and you have the nerve to say that?" Kongou started to rise however Kamijou instantly reached out and grabbed her shoulder, using a little force to prevent her from doing so. Such made Kongou's face twist in confusion as the boy spoke once more.

"No, we can no longer stand and face the world. If we do, it only increases the risk of us falling again. And I've already fallen for you."

Whether or not it was now clear what Kamijou was getting at seemed to be obvious as Kongou's face grew with an expression of comprehension as her eyes seemed to dart around nervously. Kamijou's though stayed completely locked on her face, taking her hand back in his as he bowed his head.

"I never knew that Tokiwadai was harbouring such a beauty in their midst. Beauty and purity like yours cannot be defined in words. In this City of Science, it might be ridiculous for me to say this but I am a believer now. A true believer and have faith that the gods are smiling down on me for this one encounter. Kongou Mitsuko…the love I have for you, the love I thought I would never find, is like dividing by zero. It cannot be defined, much like your beauty."

Kongou's face now seemed to fully comprehend what Kamijou was saying to her as she held her head down, fidgeting slightly. It was now that Kamijou's expression changed into one that truly reflected his feelings.

(I WANT TO DIE! KILL ME NOW! Where the hell are these cheesy lines coming from!? Angels, dividing by zero!? It's so cheesy you could dip a nacho into it!)

He truly felt like crying and he could practically hear the gags of Aogami and Tsuchimikado in the background as Kamijou suddenly realised his own folly. He realised how stupid he was sounding and figured the red on Kongou's face was that from embarrassment judging by how he felt however a fragment of how he truly felt came through right now.

"Please though. Get off the ground," He stopped figuring that as he had already gotten this far he might as well dig his grave further as he added, "This world has already been graced by your presence but we cannot have an existence such as yourself below others when you ascend over everyone else."

"Y-Yes! Indeed! If you are a man, lift me up and take responsibility for your actions! I, Kongou Mitsuko, should not have to work any when it is your fault for knocking me to the ground so."

"A-Ah! Sorry!" Another part of how Kamijou truly felt arose despite him trying to play the playboy as he grabbed Kongou's hand, tightening his grip around it lightly as to make sure that he did not hurt her. Both of them turned away from the contact with a reddened face as Kamijou lifted Kongou up with as much grace as he could.

Kamijou bent down and picked up the bag that he had left go of, wiping it down as carefully as he could given how Tokiwadai probably treated their belongings. He handed it back to her.

"Though, Kongou-san. I must ask something, if you'll allow a lesser existence such as myself to put forward such a thing to your gracefulness."

Kamijou was somewhat scared that that came out without hesitation as Kongou seemed to flinch, dropping the hand that had been pressed against her chest, which had also been the hand that Kamijou had grabbed. She seemed to compose herself as she unfolded her fan and laughed behind it.

"Ohohoho. Yes, it is a rare occasion for someone such as yourself to meet an existence like me. But, as you said, the gods are looking down on you today for I just so happen to be heading to this location!"

Kongou extended out her other hand, the one that had the piece of paper that Kamijou looked at after taking it into his own hands. He figured that Kongou had gotten over the wound to her pride rather quickly but he figured that it was mainly because of how Kamijou was acting as well that fit her personality rather well.

She seemed to be the type who was used to having servants around her so Kamijou's apparent obsession with her seemed to fit within her lifestyle. It just so happened that he was in love with her (from her point of view) so that fit Kamijou just fine given that she could act in a way that she felt was natural although what Kamijou was doing was rather unnatural for him.

Glad that Kongou wasn't feeling as though this was uncomfortable for her due to that experience with servants and doting people that she gave off, Kamijou looked at the piece of paper rather closely.

It looked to be a map, leading to a nearby Seventh Mist. The department store wasn't far off but the fact that Kongou had gotten herself on these streets when the store was practically the next street over gave the impression that she was lost. Whoever she was meeting there, they had cute handwriting as the words 'We'll meet here 3' were written in pink pen with a circle around the department store.

Still, she had gotten lost? The Tokiwadai ojou-samas surely weren't used to the world outside Academy City in their own way and it seemed as though Kongou Mitsuko was the epitome of the upper class, when compared to Mikoto. He could imagine this forehead girl performing tea parties and looking good in a kimono on New Year's but that was beside the point.

"My lady," said Kamijou with a bow as he extended the piece of paper back to her. Kongou looked at him in a way that he felt suggested she was getting used to his way of speaking and acting faster than he was. He was getting the feel for it himself (perhaps because of how he was basically at the beck and call of his freeloader and how he had been treated by Mikoto in the early stages of their punishment game) but whatever the case, Kongou took back the map as Kamijou continued speaking.

"It would be extremely rude of me to even suggest a commoner such as myself walking next to an extreme beauty such as you…but I know the way to Seventh Mist. If it would please you, would you care to accompany me to the store?" asked Kamijou to which Kongou rose an eyebrow.

"You know the way?"

"Only to Seventh Mist. However, the way to your heart is as elusive as the source of your beauty. And a human like me would never think to direct an angel such as yourself to Heaven either."

(Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh! I say it in my head before I say it out loud but it still doesn't make it any betteerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!)

Kongou seemed to flinch at those words as she hid her face behind her fan now, rising it up so that it covered her cheeks a bit more.

"Ohohoho. It does seem as though a commoner such as yourself is good for something."

"I am glad that someone like me can give you the time of day. That in itself is worth every cent. Shall we, my lady?"

Kamijou took a step back and bowed once more, indicating in the direction that Kongou was to walk in as she handed Kamijou her bag. Kamijou felt as though on a normal occasion, he would have narrowed his eyes slightly at how he had so quickly been made into a slave however, in order to stay within the setting, he took it easily and walked side by side with Kongou, albeit a little behind her.

Kamijou pointed out the store in the distance as the girl nodded while Kamijou turned around and spotted the sight of blue and blond hair in the background. The 10-minute time limit would probably be up by the time they reached the store itself and judging by the progress Kamijou was making, there was no doubt in his mind.

He had failed to get this girl to like him in any sense and thus, his failure was his victory. That was right! There was no way he had the ability to pick up chicks whatsoever and the only female companionship that he had was with his freeloader who sucked him dry for every penny he had, even though he cherished what they had.

Still, a part of him felt as though there had been something worth it in this trip. For better or for worse, Kongou Mitsuko had needed help and Kamijou had been more than willing to offer it if it made her happy.

Yet, as Kamijou looked to his side, it was clear that Kongou was slowing in her steps as she walked to their destination. She was constantly looking nervously at the store in the distance and even though she was trying to hide it on her face, her hand was clenched tight to the extent that the skin of her hand was extremely pale.

Kongou had needed help in getting to their destination but at the same time it seemed as though she was anything but happy about the fact that she had found her way. She seemed more nervous than anything and that in turn only made Kamijou frown. She had gladly started walking to Seventh Mist but now was nervous about it? It felt like whatever positive thoughts she had been channelling were lost now, giving rise to her nervous tendencies.

Kamijou watched her, the girl too lost in her own thoughts to notice. He glanced back, noticing the heads of Aogami and Tsuchimikado in the distance before sighing slightly.

This was Academy City, a city full of students that had powers like those of a manga protagonist.

However, first and foremost, they were humans. They had their own problems and insecurities and it seemed as though Kongou herself was facing a few of her own right now. It was clear in her nervousness and anxiety and that in turn only made Kamijou even more guilty about what he felt he had done.

Was his act something that was only adding to her nervousness? If he had been dealing with a personal issue and some random person came up to him and confessed their feelings out of the blue that weren't true in the first place, it wouldn't be lessening any load on his mind. Thinking about it like that, what he was doing right now made him feel like a true villain.

But more than that, there was something else despite his act that shone through the boy's mind.

Whatever he might be playing at, however he might be disrespecting Kongou by putting on this act, she was troubled by something.

And it didn't sit right with the boy to simply leave her in the state that she was in if there was the possibility that he might be able to assist. There was no way that Kamijou Touma was going to leave this girl in the state of unhappiness that she was in, with a frown on her face instead of a smile.

"Is there something the matter, my lady?" asked Kamijou, feeling the need to put on the act still. Kongou didn't know that he was acting and as such, if he broke out of character all of a sudden, she might catch on and that would not serve to lessen her problems so he stuck with it. He felt guilty for it though however hoped that whatever the problem was, he could help in whatever way he could.

Kongou turned to face him now, a raised eyebrow that seemed to shoot into her rather large forehead. Kamijou refrained from commenting on it as he pointed at her clenched fist.

"It seems as though your perfect face has been tainted with worry. Are you hesitant to go to Seventh Mist? I can show you places that are more suited to someone such as yourself my lady, if you are averse to heading there." Kamijou said to which Kongou shook her head at that.

"Not at all," she said without even catching a beat. It seemed as though Kamijou's compliments weren't working and while he was happy about that (as it meant that his victory via failure was in his grasp), Kongou still spoke. "It's just…never mind."

"Kongou-san…I realise that we might have met, however I feel something in my chest that I've never felt before right now, when I am with you. And seeing you frown like that, it hurts me more than I can say. A smile suits you much better. So please, if there is anything I can do to help, don't hesitate to ask. I will fight the world if only to protect your smile."

Part of his words were serious such as smiles suiting her better and it did hurt him to see her frown when it was possible that him telling her the truth about what he was doing would hurt Kongou herself. But whatever the case, he felt an inherent wrongness with leaving the girl with her troubles in front of him.

Kongou though merely shook her head at that, giving a light laugh.

"Hardly. As a commoner, is it not arrogant to think that you can understand the problems of the higher class?"

"But as a commoner, I am driven to understand what makes you so nervous. The clouds of anxiety only serve to darken even the brightest of days, don't you agree?"

Kamijou used fancy words and phrases to bridge the gap between them as higher class ojou-sama and commoner. Kongou still shook her head regardless of Kamijou's words.

"I appreciate the concern. However, I do not think that you can help me when it comes to the falsehoods I spread."

"Falsehoods?" asked Kamijou at that. Somehow those words struck a chord within him given what he was doing right now, only further deepening his desire to get to the bottom of this and make sure that whatever problem Kongou was haunted by was exorcised and left her. It might have been presumptuous for him to think he could solve whatever problem she was having by himself but there was no way that he could leave her be.

This had nothing to do with the concept of saving her or something like that. It had nothing to do with improving himself in her eyes or getting Kongou to like him or respect him in some way or form.

Kamijou Touma merely could not bear to see Kongou Mitsuko wearing the sorrowful expression that she was holding.

And he felt as though if anyone was doing the same next to him, whether it was a boy or a girl or human or not, he would ask that same question in order to allow them the chance to get their smiles back.

"I wouldn't expect you to understand." Kongou said as if brushing off the issue entirely as Kamijou merely put his hands in his pockets and shrugged.

"May I hazard a guess then, my lady?"

Kongou looked at Kamijou with perhaps a hint of amusement in her eyes as she unfolded her fan once more and held it in front of her face. Although he couldn't see her expression he could tell that she was smiling given by her tone of voice.

"Oh? The commoner thinks he has the ability to look into the hearts of the higher class? By all means, guess. Be warned though. How accurately you do so will determine whether I think you have the ability to match actions with words." She said, hiding a somewhat mocking tone.

Kamijou felt as though the constant looking down on him given he was acting was unnecessary but he put it off as he stared her right in the eye, something that made the girl step back a bit, maybe because she was not used to having the opposite sex look at her so fully and truly.

And he spoke.

"Is it possible that maybe, the Kongou Mitsuko that I am seeing here and the Kongou Mitsuko that you show to whoever you are meeting are two different people?"

"Wha-?"

If there was any confirmation needed, then it was provided as Kongou stopped walking and took a step back in surprise. Kamijou did not change his expression as he stared at her in the eye. She averted her gaze although she was still hiding her mouth behind her fan.

It seemed as though Kamijou had hit the nail on the head, ironically telling her what he was doing right in this moment: providing a falsehood in the sense that the Kamijou Touma that Kongou was seeing was not the true Kamijou Touma that he let others see.

In that sense, Kamijou felt as though he was partially looking into a mirror as he spoke up once more.

"My lady, I do not mean to be rude but you have already provided an answer to my question. I'm not going to make any overwhelming assumptions on the matter but merely state the facts as I see them. And they are merely, that Kongou Mitsuko has been lying to her friends."

Kongou's eyes gained a sharpness that had not been there before as she looked at Kamijou with an icy glare. She brought her fan closer to her mouth, as if to control the words that she spat out.

"Watch your tongue commoner. Whatever you said to me, keep in mind that I am Kongou Mitsuko, a maiden of Tokiwadai. You will speak to me in the manner that I deserve to be spoken to."

Kamijou wanted to say something to retort however bit back the remark he was about to make. He stepped back, bowing slightly like a butler might do to his master. That in turn seemed to calm the girl as she stood up straight and cleared her throat.

"I apologise my lady."

"N-Not at all. I merely lost my composure for a bit there. I apologise as well. I said something that was a defensive remark when you were more than right. I…I am ashamed to say this, but I, Kongou Mitsuko have indeed been lying to my friends. Although I am sure that many people in Tokiwadai, including my friends themselves, understand that on occasion, falsehoods come out of my mouth."

"My lady?" Kamijou asked as he rose his head slightly as Kongou nodded, Kamijou rising fully as a result. He brought his hands out of his pockets and held them in front of him as Kongou frowned as she looked at them.

"What are you doing?" she asked. Kamijou though only gave a soft smile that made Kongou step back in surprise as the boy spoke.

"I said before didn't I? I…I don't want you to lose your smile. On an angelic face such as yours, happiness is a gift from the heavens where you belong my lady. So I am here. I am here in any respect should you need to have an ear to listen and an aid to advise."

Kongou lightly blushed at the words that Kamijou was giving her however turned her head away from him as Kamijou continued.

"You said that you were lying to your friends my lady. I don't mean to pry into the private life of an angel such as yourself…but in what respect have you been lying?" he asked her to which Kongou smiled only shaking her head.

"Nothing serious…at least from an external point of view it is hardly such. It has been small things that are not really of much significance. But, those small things have built up. At some point, the lies that I was telling my friends snowballed into a being known as 'Kongou Mitsuko' that those lies do not apply to."

Kongou scoffed in self derision at this now as she shook her head, turning it away from Kamijou right now.

"Why am I telling you this? You are basically a stranger and it is not your place to know things about my private life. The matter shall be left there. Besides, Seventh Mist is in the distance. I think I can take it from here."

Kongou started to walk off, however without realising it, Kamijou's hand had already shot out and grabbed hers. She looked surprised at the action, however that surprise was soon lost as it turned into a soft anger as she glared at Kamijou.

"Release me commoner. As a student of Tokiwadai, I have to at least be over Level 3. Are you willing to test out the gap between Tokiwadai Middle School and whatever backwater school you came from?"

Kongou instantly regretted the words that she spoke the instant that they came out of her mouth. She realised that the boy was trying his best to help her out with her personal problems but at the end of the day, they were her problems. She didn't have to unveil her heart to some stranger on the street who happened to whisper embarrassing things into the air.

His grip was light, clearly not meant to hurt her, only to stop her however she felt as though it was unnaturally strong for such a calm grip. Still, she felt trapped as if this boy were someone that she had to get away from. She turned to look at his face from where their hands were locked.

And she saw the boy looking at her with an expression that she couldn't place. It was as if the boy was pitying her, however it was not the type of pity that was mocking. It was genuine as if the boy understood her plight more than anyone else as if, through this one connection, the boy who had confessed to her and the girl Kongou Mitsuko were bound together in unity as they faced this problem.

She opened her mouth to say something however it was the boy that spoke.

"Don't. I don't care what school you think I come from or what Level you think I am. I realise that there might be a large gap between you and me, Kongou Mitsuko however there is one thing that I know. And that is if you leave this issue, it will come back to haunt you. And by the time it does, it will crumble the very identity that you had built up until that point."

Kamijou Touma spoke with conviction, his tone of voice indicating that he had dropped the act of the 'playboy' entirely.

Kongou Mitsuko.

Although he had picked her out (well not him) as a target to determine whether or not this ridiculous Kami-yan Disease existed or not, there was something that she was facing. He didn't know if he could relate to it or if he had something of a solution but he was willing to do anything in order to help this girl with her problem.

The feeling that he had then was partially because he felt guilty for lying to her right now and also because of his own natural personality: he wanted to help this girl retain her smile despite what he was doing.

But even so, the words that she had spoken had resounded within Kamijou himself.

Kongou Mitsuko had lied to her friends. She had lied about small things (things like her dress size, how many butlers she had or skills she could do at home) but at some point they had built up and formed a person known as 'Kongou Mitsuko' that was far removed from her true self.

She had created an image of herself that did not reflect the truth of who she really was.

Was this a normal problem? Surely there were people out there that exaggerated the truth and told lies about themselves in order to impress their friends. In that case, Kongou's problem wasn't really something that she alone faced however there was something about it, the look on her face when she showed regret for lying.

For better or for worse, Kamijou Touma himself had been through the same problem.

He had lied to a certain nun in white about his memory loss.

He had stacked up lie upon lie until eventually it was hard to determine where the previous 'Kamijou Touma' began and the new one started. In an attempt to reclaim what the old version of him had had, he had lied and formed an image of himself that was far removed from what he was truly like.

It might have been a strange application however the problem at its core was the same; he had lied and eventually, the lies had snowballed until all had been revealed.

He had remembered the gut wrenching feeling when the truth had been known to the nun and the liberation that had come with her accepting the fact that he had lost his memories. For having someone like that by his side, Kamijou was eternally grateful but it was because of his experiences that he understood one thing.

And that was that he could not leave this girl, Kongou Mitsuko alone with this problem.

His entire being and experiences told him that he could not just leave her alone, to bear this problem despite it having nothing to do with him.

He could not accept it.

So he wasn't going to.

"What are you talking about?"

"I can't leave you alone in this Kongou-san. You realise it too; the lies have to stop at some point but it has reached a stage where you don't know whether or not your friends will hate you for lying to them or accept you as someone that maybe didn't think that you are as good as the normal you was made out to be."

"You are…"

"Yes. I understand Kongou-san. I understand your pain, your anxiety and how each and every question your friends ask you about your lies only add to it. I understand that at some point, you realised that it had gotten so out of hand that you couldn't determine at what point those lies had overtaken your true self. But even then, you couldn't tell your friends the truth about yourself could you? And you know why you have to keep lying like you have to your friends don't you?"

Kamijou asked Kongou a serious question and she reacted the exact same way that he would have if he had been given those exact same questions so long ago. She held her head down in an aspect of shame, shame for her lies and also at herself for keeping at them despite wanting to be honest with her friends.

Kongou realised herself that she was lying however the statement 'Just stop' was easier said than done. And that was one particular reason that Kongou let out of her mouth in a low voice words, to the person that spoke of things that only people who had gone through the same problem understood.

"I….I'm scared."

Kongou trembled slightly as the two of them had stopped walking, tightening her own grasp around Kamijou's hand that held hers in its warm embrace.

"I…I don't know what to do. I've prepared a mask to cover my face and I've weaved so much into its creation, I've gotten the feeling that the person that my friends, my precious friends, are looking at isn't me, but the mask over my face. But I can't tell them that it was nothing but lies. They would never forgive me and then I'd have nothing left!"

Kongou's voice trembled as she realised that her dissatisfaction at her own image had led to this in the first place.

As the heiress to Kongou Airlines, she had felt as though she had not had enough servants benefiting of her title when she was young. So she had lied about the amount she had.

As a woman, she had felt as though she did not have enough skills in the kitchen. So she had lied about her ability to cook and said she could do so perfectly.

As an esper, she had felt as though maybe she wasn't getting enough credit for her ability, Aero Hand. So she had lied and said she had her ability extensively researched because its application was different from others.

The real Kongou Mitsuko had not been enough in her opinion. So she had prettied it up, prepared a mask of lies to cover over her face and because of such had formulated the position she had become a part of.

She knew that lying to her friends made her worse than most people but the fact that they had snowballed into this situation made her more worried. She could not stop the lies coming from her mouth now, as if the real Kongou Mitsuko were nothing more than someone that was eventually dying away, to be replaced by this person of lies.

But she could not simply tell the truth.

Because she did not know what would happen.

Her friends, Wannai Kinuho and Awatsuki Maaya …just how much of their opinion of her was based around this false 'Kongou Mitsuko'? How much did they believe in what she said and how much did they feel was true and lies?

Kongou could not say but as a blossoming teenager, she had felt as though she had to 'dress to impress'. T.S. Eliot himself had said one had to "prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet" and the face that Kongou had used was broken, shattered and taking over her entire form. **[1]**

But still, she could not tell the truth because she was scared about how her friends would react.

She was scared that upon learning that she was lying because she was not satisfied with herself as she was, they would abandon her and leave her in the position she wanted to avoid more than anything else.

A position where she had no one.

"I don't know what to do and I don't want to ruin what I have with my friends. I have nothing left to remind myself of the truth and only the lies remain. Where did the line stop and start? When did I feel as though the real Kongou Mitsuko wasn't enough to satisfy them? Am I not good enough? Do I feel as though I have to lie to myself to make myself better? Why? Why, whenever I speak do nothing but lies come from my mouth? I hate myself for it but I can't simply put this to the side anymore!"

Kamijou looked at the girl in front of him as she hung her head now, her grip on his own hand tightening a tiny bit.

"I…I don't know what to do….."

Kamijou watched her, noting that they had stopped walking entirely even though their destination was right across the road now, but he kept his gaze entirely on Kongou as he spoke.

"Do you want to be truthful?"

Kongou's shoulders jumped at that one question.

"Are you scared because your friends might reject you once you tell them the truth?"

Kongou lowered her head at that as Kamijou once more posed a single question.

"Are you satisfied with that then? That the friendship that you have is only a friendship under the pretence of lies?"

All of Kongou's thoughts stopped at those words as she looked up at Kamijou who was merely staring her down. He continued though as it was clear that Kongou was like a lost child, unable to comprehend his words because of her own chaotic thoughts.

"You have been lying to your friends and are scared to tell them the truth because of how they will react. But…in the midst of that, doesn't that mean that you are scared to be truthful to them? You've built up a friendship but it's not made up of lies, it's just that you've lied in the friendship. When you look at your friends, do you think that they will turn their backs on you the moment that they realise the truth about you? Do you want a friendship where the moment that you are honest, the friendship is lost?"

Kongou opened her mouth however her own mind had already processed the question.

She had lied to her friends constantly in order to have them accept her more easily and she wanted to stop more than anything, to be honest with her friends.

She was scared about how they would accept her from that but at the end of the day, if they turned their backs to her, then wasn't that the extent of their friendship? They felt that they were betrayed, there was no point in reconciliation and their friendship would stop then and there.

Kongou would not blame them if that was what they did however, was that type of friendship the one that she was looking for at the bottom of her heart?

Was she satisfied with the idea that she could maintain a friendship using nothing but lies where honesty would only result in one's downfall?

Kongou only hung her head once more, speaking her own heart to the stranger that had listened to her problem.

"I…I want to be honest. I don't want to hold onto this mask of lies anymore and I want to be truthful. I want to walk alongside my friends without bragging, lying or being deceitful because I'm unsure whether or not they will accept me."

"Then do so."

"I-It's not that simple!" cried Kongou as she looked at the boy in front of her whose expression had not changed even though he had suggested the ridiculous. "How can I do that? You think that I can just unveil my lies to them and accept that everything will be OK? Do you think that-"

"Are you saying that you don't trust your friends?"

Kamijou cut in simply and bluntly as Kongou went wide eyed, her mouth flapping open and closed without stopping. She found herself short of words at what Kamijou said, unable to find it in herself to answer.

Was this the crux of the problem?

Kongou Mitsuko could not be honest, but was that partly because she had yet to truly trust her friends? Truly trust them and ensure that they did not turn their backs when she revealed the truth? It stepped on their names in the most disrespectful way however beyond any of that, only one question filled Kongou's mind in that one moment, in response to the boy's words.

Was that true friendship?

A friendship built on nothing but lies where one was distrustful of the persons that they called their 'friends'?

The boy in front of her had suggested that she merely confess her sins. Even though it was the simplest solution, Kongou felt as though that one answer was enough to shake her entire core and bring her back to reality.

The reason that the solution was the simplest one was because it was the most correct.

In order for Kongou Mitsuko to dispel her doubts, her mask of lies and confirm her friendship and the trust that was behind it, there was only one thing that she needed to do.

And that was come clean.

Accept whatever was to come and embrace the result.

Even if it ended badly there would have been one thing in the mind of that girl.

And that was she had decided to be honest. She had decided to put her fate in someone else's hands and that she had broken free of her shell of lies and put herself defenceless and vulnerable in front of people that she wanted to trust more than anything.

The answer to the problem that had shaken her heart so, was merely to be honest. To not let the lies catch up to her and not continue to lie to her friends.

But even though that reality was in front of her, she still kept her head down and whispered her next words.

"But…but what if they don't accept me? What if my lies have snowballed into a state where it is impossible to recover my friendship?" she asked softly as she lifted her head to see the boy's face turn into a smile. Kongou stared in wonder at how the boy could smile at that as Kamijou merely responded.

"Then those weren't truly friends. You have shown me your core Kongou Mitsuko. And I have seen kindness, desire to belong and the want to connect truly to other people. Many people lie in their relationships and build things on falsehoods, ignoring them when they come to confess. But not you. You want to be honest, to put your life in your friends' hands and that in itself is a beautiful thing. If this is who you are Kongou Mitsuko, then the person you have created using your lies must be nothing more than a shadow of an angel such as yourself."

Although Kamijou put in his own act at the very last statement there was something else in it that rung true.

Whatever he felt, whatever he said, the girl in front of him had wanted to truly trust in her friends and put her life in their hands. It was rare to want to create that sort of connection in the world nowadays yet here was someone that wanted to be accepted no matter what and to discard the lie she had made.

Yes.

Just like he had done once with Index.

And so, he spoke once more, dropping the act entirely as he spoke from his heart.

"Is this person that wants to connect with others, wants to be truthful and wants to merely open herself out to others…if that person is Kongou Mitsuko, then I tell you truthfully. I could come to like a girl like you." Kamijou grinned at that as Kongou blushed fiercely, not noting the contradiction in what he was saying now and what he had said earlier.

Kamijou didn't say those words with romantic intention behind them; that wasn't the case. If Kongou Mitsuko merely wanted to be fully open with another person, then that in itself was a beautiful thing, something that shouldn't be lost. If someone like that had lost their smile in any way, then Kamijou was sure of one thing.

That he would fight to protect their smile no matter what.

"Put aside all thoughts, worries and anxieties. Only be truthful, be open and more importantly, _be __Kongou Mitsuko_. If you do that then no one can put you down and mock you. That much is true. And besides, even if things don't work out, I'll always stick by your side. And I'll do so with my dying breath."

Kongou was hanging her head now (perhaps out of embarrassment?) from what Kamijou had said as colour went to his own cheeks as he somewhat realised how embarrassing what he had said was. Still, with that hanging head, Kamijou addressed her as he looked up at their destination.

"But we are here. And your friends are surely here as well."

Kongou's head shot up and turned around, seeing that they had already reached their destination. Seventh Mist stood across from the street and although Kamijou could not see them, Kongou could spot Wannai Kinuho and Awatsuki Maaya in front of the store itself.

Her precious friends.

The ones that she had wanted to be truthful to, no matter what.

Kamijou let go of Kongou's hand and pushed her lightly on the back. She stumbled a bit, turning and facing the boy who had his hands on his hips.

"Go on then. Be yourself."

And with that, unexpectedly, Kamijou Touma turned his back on Kongou. Her eyes went wide as she saw him do so, even more so as he took that first step away from her.

Kongou Mitsuko did not know what had happened or the thoughts that led her to take the next action but the reality filled her as she realised what had happened the next moment she had blinked.

She had raced forward and grabbed the boy's uniform, like a lost child that had found their guardian and did not want to let go no matter what. The mysterious stranger had stopped in his tracks as Kongou found words that she had never said to anyone before coming from her mouth.

It wasn't what she was saying that was different.

It was _how she was saying them_.

She was saying words that were filled with no lies, no falsehoods, only the truth as she spoke to this boy in front of her. She spoke true words that she had failed to speak in front of her friends, yet shared them with this boy that she knew nothing about. It confused her, her mind was a mess and her heart a set of conflicting emotions however even then she spoke words from the depths of her heart.

"B-But! I need you! You've pushed me forward this far to take this first step! C-Commoner. As your lady, you need to listen to me, Kongou Mitsuko and comply with my demands!" She found herself shouting strange words as she yelled them, attracting attention from the pedestrians. Kamijou turned and grabbed Kongou's hands in his own.

She looked at him, noting his strong gaze and feeling colour rise to her cheeks for a reason she could not fathom. For whatever the reason, she had revealed her core and heart to this boy yet he had taken it in his stride, not missing a beat and accepting it as if it were natural.

It was as if her lies, her confession to him were nothing more than incidental and that her angelic nature would never be tainted in his eyes.

In some way, he had trusted Kongou Mitsuko from the moment that she had told him of her problem and had accepted her without asking or considering her bad points.

He had done something that Kongou had been scared that no one would. And that in itself made her want to hold onto this boy for all her worth.

Kamijou took Kongou's hands in his own and stepped closer, whispering into her ear (even though every sense in his body was writhing in embarrassment from what he was doing). But even so, he stood fast and spoke hushed words into her ear.

"You don't Kongou Mitsuko. I'm not abandoning you, so don't think I am. But this is something only you can do, and a path that only you can walk down by your own choices. I can't make you do what I suggested and be truthful to your friends; only you can do that. So this path is your own. Make it as beautiful as the person who walks down it."

Kamijou stepped back and took only one of Kongou's hands in his own as he stared Kongou in the eye and spoke once more.

"May the winds of fate direct us to each other again, my lady. But for now, the stage is only set for Kongou Mitsuko. There is no room for me there. But this is not farewell. It is only a small parting, until we meet again."

Kamijou smiled and despite his head telling him that what came to mind was a terrible idea (actually his mental process was more "DID I REALLY THINK OF THAT!? Screw it, Kamijou Touma, you've come this far you damn bastard so hit it out of the park! She's not even in my strike zone but who caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaares!? Victory through failureeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!") he brought Kongou's hand higher to his mouth.

And then with a quick motion, he kissed the back of her hand.

Kongou's face exploded red at that contact as Kamijou let her hand drop slightly before bowing once and smiling at the girl.

"Goodbye, my lady."

And with that, he turned his back and walked away into the crowd, without even turning back.

Kongou Mitsuko felt her face burn a deep red as she felt the corner of her eyes tear up at the sight of the parting boy. She started to reach out to him once more however the words that he had spoken filled her mind.

This was her path.

And it was up to her to make the first and final choice.

She pressed the hand that the mysterious stranger with spiky-hair had kissed closer to her chest as she continued watching, seeing that black head of hair finally leave her vision after a long 65 seconds but even then, the blush that was on her face did not fade.

But she had a goal and something that she had to do.

So, as she wiped her eyes with her hands, she took one last look at that hand that had been kissed. And with that same blushing face, she brought that hand closer to her chest, closing her eyes and remembering the sensation, the warmth that she had felt in that one moment.

The blush had not died down, even after 97 seconds and Kongou Mitsuko knew one thing.

She didn't want it to as she finally took the courage to turn her back, and walk across the street. In her vision were the sight of her two friends (who also had red faces as they had seen the entire exchange from a distance) as Kongou walked up to them, a strange silence coming over the group.

Kongou took the first move.

It was time.

It was time to remove the mask and show those girls, Wannai Kinuho and Awatsuki Maaya who Kongou Mitsuko really was.

"Wannai-san, Awatsuki-san. I have something to tell you."

* * *

For lack of a better word, Aogami Pierce and Tsuchimikado Motoharu were speechless. They merely stood staring, mouths open at the scene that they had witnessed from their spot of safety.

Kamijou Touma, that magnificent bastard, had walked away to where they had decided to meet (the current location of the other two members of the Delta Force) and was constantly smashing his head against the wall with a red face that suggested that he had been the most embarrassed out of anyone during the entire ordeal.

But that didn't matter.

The fact was that he had done it.

That bastard had, through some means or something had managed to win over that Tokiwadai girl within the 10-minute time limit.

They both turned to the boy (who had created a rather large crater in the wall and was bleeding quite a lot from the forehead) with looks that only suggested that they were hardly happy about the fact that they had been proven right.

Still, even after all of this, it proved one thing and one thing only!

And that was-!

"You see, you magnificent bastard?! You did it! You won her over and you did so by being so smooth, I can't believe it's not butter!"

"A-"

Kamijou though, with that bleeding forehead and bits of rubble falling from the wound turned to his blue haired friend that had spoken.

"Are you kidding me?! What part of that even suggested that she liked me?! Tell me! Give me a list!"

"She had teary eyes watching you leave greater than the 1-minute mark! In fact, it was 65 seconds nyah~! Not to mention that she was blushing for a full 97 seconds before deciding to leave! How do you explain that?!"

"I helped her out with a single problem so she probably decided that she owed me, even though I told her to deal with it at the end! She probably felt as though she owed me!"

"Stop lying to yourself! I'll destroy that illusion!"

"Hang a minute there Aogami, you can't just blurt out lines like that without asking me for p – bfhfhfhfhggf?!" Kamijou received a punch to the face as he was sent tumbling to the ground. Aogami got him in a chokehold while turning to Tsuchimikado.

"Tsuchimikado, get him! We'll get this guy, this source of the Kami-yan Disease to admit that he's the north pole while the chicks are the south pole to his chick magnet! Do it! DO IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!"

"I'm just as pissed off about this as you are Aogamiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! Even though we intentionally let the beast out of its cage by having you purposefully win over someone, we'll never do it again! But you'll probably pick up chicks without even realising it anyway nyah~! You better stay away from Maika, you bastard!"

"Is that what this is about? In the end, the only thing that you're doing is advancing your own objectives! And what does Maika have to do with anything? I've never even had a romantic encounter with her!"

"Huh? Didn't you and I help her search for that cleaning robot that she had marked as her own?" asked Aogami to Kamijou who blinked once while looking up at the boy even though he was in a chokehold.

"Ah, yeah we did. Although you ditched halfway through because of the cosplay contest that was being held in District 6."

"Bunny girls! I can't believe that you didn't join Kami-yan! You should have checked out the crossover of genres! There was even the rare breed of goth loli, onee-san with glasses and huge breasts bunny girl whose outfit accentuated those fine 3D curves!"

"I think that you're losing character there Aogami Pierce. Are you going for 2D or 3D?"

"Wh-What? I really am from Osaka man~…."

"I didn't ask you idiot! And stop switching characters, it gets confusing! B-But did you onee-san?!"

"WAIT JUST A MINUTE THERE KAMI-YAN! Are you telling me that you spent basically an entire day with my step sister without my knowledge?!" asked Tsuchimikado, cracking his knuckles with a darkness surrounding him that likely only people that were buried in the ground knew of.

"Wh-What? No, it was after a school day and she said that you were off doing some kind of job or whatever. Don't tell me you were off smelling her uniform or something you Sis-con Sergeant."

"H-How did you know?!"

"Are you serious?!"

"Tsuchimikado…you are living your life correctly." The class representative Fetish King gave a thumbs up as Kamijou once more turned to face him.

"Again, you really need to ask permission before you use my lines like th – byayhghgsg?!"

Kamijou never got another word out as Tsuchimikado pounded him in the face as the trio entered a brawl that probably would have gone down in history as the most violent fight to cross District 7 streets.

"Stay away from my sisteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!"

"She's a step sister and I have no interest in her! Besides, you're always on about harem this and harem that, Kami-yan Disease this and Kami-yan Disease that, but where is the evidence?! OBJECTION I say!"

"Objection overruled! We'll get you to admit that the Kami-yan Disease exists even if we have to wring it out of you Kami-yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!"

It seemed as though the idiocy of the Delta Force wasn't going to die soon and personally Kamijou Touma wanted to have nothing to do with this. In his own opinion, he had trodden on a girl's feelings by acting as a predator but the fact remained that he had managed to get her to reveal her problem and he had provided a solution.

Disregarding what those two idiots were saying, Kongou Mitsuko had definitely felt something from their interaction. If Kamijou had maybe been acting more as himself and less like a playboy bastard, he probably would have picked up on the feelings that she had developed for him but his own embarrassment at his actions and guilt had prevented him from seeing things clearly.

But even so, he had seen one thing clearly, just before he had turned the corner to where he was now.

And that was the sight of Kongou Mitsuko smiling among her friends that she had revealed the truth to.

She had finally broken free of her chains and was smiling truthfully and happily.

And for Kamijou Touma, that smile was the only thing that he needed as a reward.

A harem? The Kami-yan Disease?

Who cared about any of that?

As long as there was a smile on Kongou Mitsuko's face, on _anyone's face_, then Kamijou Touma was satisfied.

* * *

**[1] This line is from T.S. Eliot's poem 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'.**

**So what did you think?**

**There was one important point in this that I wanted to get across in this one-shot. As you could clearly see, this idea was "Can Touma win over a girl when he tries to be as smooth as possible?". The answer that I arrived at though, was a definite "No."**

**Touma is not that kind of character, winging everything and winning hearts left and right using nothing but sweet words and acting cool. He never tries to do so and from the one-shot, I hope that you understood that his attempts to do so would result in hilarious mental anguish as he tries to reconcile his embarrassment and his actions. I should note at this point that given how Touma went along with the flow of things, I did feel as though given how he realises that he is disrespecting Kongou for acting in the way that he would have not gone along with what he did. Although the flow of things caught him up and caused him to act, I hope that you looked at what was doing and didn't think it was 'cool' or 'noble': Touma himself realises that what he is doing is disrespectful and is treating girls as nothing more than prey when they are more than that. The guilt then that surrounded him in his actions is a major part of how Touma didn't see what he was supposed to and also how it made him regret everything that he was doing.**

**But I think that maybe the question of whether Touma being smooth cannot pick up chicks would change if it was around girls that he has never met. In this sense, when looking at this one-shot, you have to consider when it comes to encounters with Touma, the way that the Kami-yan Disease is applied is around that of 'salvation'. Touma is a silent hero and I feel as though if I wanted to apply the Kami-yan Disease in a successful way, someone had to be 'saved'.**

**This could have been through a proper battle or through the usual Touma speeches but we had a fight scene last one-shot, so I went in the direction of the latter. And the girl this time was Kongou! I hope that you guys felt as though I really nailed her in terms of characterisation.**

**In terms of what her problem was then, I think it was something that we can all relate to; the idea that we aren't always honest with our friends. I took it to a bit of an extreme with Kongou here where the lies had reached the points where she could not stop and had to discard her own identity but at the same time she had the desire to want to be closer to her Tokiwadai friends. It was this struggle where she could not find a way out of her web of lies that Touma came in and 'saved' her.**

**Having been in something similar, he knows how bad that extreme can get and wants to stop Kongou from falling into the same trap that he did of constantly lying until the dam breaks. Mind though, it was more of Touma being true to himself and his desire to 'save' Kongou from her problems that made her a victim of the Disease. Him being smooth had nothing to do with it and it was only 'being truthful to himself' that created the result that he wanted. He was feeling guilty for paying the playboy the entire time but when he acted like himself for that small moment, the Disease really took hold. I wanted to address this guilt factor a bit more but it was really the ending and how by not lying and acting as himself that created results that I think you need to focus on as the 'core' of this one-shot rather than Touma trying to be smooth, failing hopelessly and the arising guilt from such.**

**But do you think it would have worked as well if he hadn't been acting smooth?**

**I'll leave that up to you to decide.**

**So, even though Touma fell flat on his face trying to be smooth (the final head smashing scene I think really gets it across), I hope that you enjoyed what was in essence, a chapter of Delta Force stupidity once more and harem adding skills that Touma doesn't really need in his quest for a normal life.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please.**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**I guess the main reason I went in this direction was because the girl that was the focus was someone that Touma has never met before (as of 16/6/2016 when this was completed). So, I guess the question is, what would happen if Touma tried to be smooth around someone that he does know (and also has or perhaps does not have feelings for him)? An interesting idea….**


	37. The Rumour III

**Last time on The Rumour:**

A hellish rumour has spread through Academy City!

_"It seems as though that boy, Kamijou Touma-kun is apparently looking for a girlfriend."_

Shokuhou Misaki's own desire to confirm the rumour with Kamijou focused around the concept of 'association', a possible loophole in him always forgetting her that would allow him to remember her as long as he saw her not as 'Shokuhou Misaki' associated with nothing but rather as 'Shokuhou Misaki', his girlfriend as long as Kamijou was truly looking for one.

_Whatever the case, there was a small fragment of salvation in front of Shokuhou right now. Whether or not she became his girlfriend was irrelevant, only a second step. What was important was that she was remembered and if she associated with being his 'girlfriend' then it was possible that she could be remembered by the boy._

This desire though put her in direct conflict with another Level 5 and the serious fight between the #3, Misaka Mikoto and the #5, Shokuhou Misaki ended undecided, without a proper victor for one certain reason.

_Yet Kumokawa Seria stood among it all without a care._

Yet when they investigated Kamijou Touma's school, they found that he was not there.

_"A-Are you kidding me!? He escaped his school from his window during lunch to escape the rumour?! That bloody idiot! He could be anywhere now!"_

Not to mention that the number of rivals increased from just the two Level 5s and the entirety of Tokiwadai Middle School, with some exceptions.

_She didn't think that it would also affect most of the female population of A Certain High School as well!_

Leaving A Certain High School and whatever plans Kumokawa Seria had behind, Shokuhou managed to control Anti-Skill officers to find the boy, while noticing the large amount of girls on the streets. But who should she find, controlling a large amount of the unmanned vehicles known as the Ten Legs?

_"Misaka…..Mikoto."_

It seemed as though another serious fight with next-gen weapons was about to begin between the Shokuhou controlled Anti-Skill forces and the Ten Legs controlled Mikoto forces however before they could get properly started, they were interrupted.

_"Hiya there Level 5s. I heard something interesting on the grapevine so if you could please direct me to that fool, it would be much appreciated. Oh, and I'm here to take you out of the running so please don't resist."_

The mysterious new player made that announcement as their introduction into the hell of Academy City started a new wave of chaos to form!

_"Leivinia…Birdway."_

_Shokuhou felt a chill up her spine as she looked at the small girl that had a sword placed on her shoulder as she grinned at the both of the Level 5s. However, she had done it, she had taken out the warhead in mid-air, doing so with a calm nature and skill._

_And here she was, to take them out of the 'running'._

_Meaning that she was looking for Kamijou Touma for the same reason that they were._

_All because of that one rumour._

_'Kamijou Touma is looking for a girlfriend'._

_Somehow, as Shokuhou Misaki looked at Leivinia Birdway, she felt as though things were going to get worse before they got better._

**And now, let the next part of the story begin!**

* * *

Leivinia Birdway had a single problem.

She didn't think that such would be of much concern: being the leader of the Dawn-Coloured Sunlight, the solutions to her problems usually involved blasting a few people away or searching through different legends around the world to determine which system of magic suited her problems the best.

However, with this current problem, it was a separate issue entirely.

This was not something that could be beaten into submission or buried within her thoughts in order to divert the issue entirely.

No, this was something that deserved her full attention.

She had heard something from intercepting communications that had headed to Necessarius that there was someone here in Academy City that was doing the inconceivable.

Kamijou Touma was looking for a girlfriend.

The very fact that she thought such an action was inconceivable was pretty unfortunate for the spiky-haired boy however, for that small impressionable girl, there was something else entirely that had to be addressed.

And that was the fact that that spiky-haired fool was searching for someone when perfection incarnate was right in front of him, literally a phone call away.

The moment that Birdway had heard the rumour itself, she had immediately hijacked a personal transport plane to arrive in the Land of the Rising Sun. While she had indeed managed to do that, landing inside Tokyo's Haneda Airport instead of District 23's airport, the detour that she had to make through the streets of suburban Japan was of no consequence.

Sure, she broken through some houses, smashed into a bus that had been casually driving along and created some more chaos outside Academy City however, all the while she had her sights set on one goal.

And that was reaching Academy City and confirming the validity of this rumour herself from the person that was at its centre: that fool Kamijou Touma.

And fool was the right adjective for him, given how he had said nothing of the sort to her and he had managed to keep such a fact hidden for so long despite her information gathering prowess. While she had recalled him complaining about something like 'meeting someone nice', she had placed it on his usual stupidity and thought nothing of it.

But with this new rumour sprouting up (something that she knew the forces of Necessarius already had knowledge about), this was something that she could not ignore or simply pass off as stupid.

And there was one reason for this.

Part of her (perhaps the more arrogant part) would have given the reason as being that Kamijou himself had failed to even point out that Birdway herself was perfect girlfriend material. Sure, she was haughty, arrogant, underage as she was only 12, pretty bossy, flat as a board and sadistic both as a person and the boss of the Dawn-Coloured Sunlight but ignoring all of that, she felt herself that she was perfect.

Saying that out loud might have presented some indications of how Birdway thought too highly of herself but if asked directly that was what she would have said. She would have claimed that the main reason for entering Academy City was to get the information straight from the horse's mouth and proclaim herself as the boy's girlfriend.

While her intentions were probably more along the lines of 'enlisting Kamijou Touma as her slave', a boyfriend was basically the same thing right? A slave to the girlfriend? It seemed to fit the picture and he would surely have no complaints because Leivinia Birdway was practically perfect in every way.

However…underneath all of that, Birdway understood the true desire why she had to confirm the existence of this rumour from the horse's mouth and why she had been so bothered about the revelation of it.

And that was the fact that Kamijou Touma, no matter how much she tried to deny it, was someone that was special to her.

She didn't mean it in a romantic sense, or at the very least, she didn't _think _she did. Birdway herself was unclear on where she sat on the specifics of the line known as 'closeness to Kamijou Touma' but she was sure of one thing: that Kamijou Touma was a large part of her life and hers his.

They had met, they had interacted, they had fought and they had been in conflict together. In that sense, Birdway understood herself that nothing much separated her from other girls but she had felt something important between the two of them.

And that was connection. A strong connection that bound together Kamijou Touma and Leivinia Birdway.

If she had to place it into words, she would have to concede something that had been put forward by that dreadful Saint Silvia.

During the chaos that was GREMLIN, when Birdway had set her sights on the being known as Fräulein Kreutune, it had been Kamijou Touma that had stood in her way. It had been him, who she had betrayed back in Hawaii, that had placed a drill against her head and revealed his trust issues he had with her. It had been him that had been shot in the side, who she had assisted in healing. And it had been him that had taken her on and said that he could not accept her becoming the villain in everyone's eyes.

He had fought her in order to protect her from herself, wanting himself to be a sacrifice in order to make sure that she could be saved.

He had saved her.

And then he had saved her and her sister Patricia in the chaos surrounding him, Kamisato Kakeru and World Rejecter.

Time and time again, the boy had placed her interests as important and discarded his own issues, thinking entirely of her. Surely that meant that he saw her as an important figure, but then again, he did the same with anyone he set his eyes on to save. In that sense, Birdway was not special but even if that were his thoughts on the matter, Birdway had reached a particular conclusion.

She had thought of him as special.

She had wanted him to pull out of the fighting with GREMLIN in order to make sure he did not get hurt.

She did not tell him about the cannibalisation and the effects of the fruit or organ she had grown in her body because she knew what his reaction would be during the incident with Patricia.

She had wanted him to be safe and she thought of him as a 'safe zone' where she wasn't the leader of the Dawn-Coloured Sunlight, wasn't one of the most dangerous magicians in the world and wasn't someone that always had ulterior motives.

She was merely Leivinia Birdway, one person, one girl.

Birdway had thought of Kamijou as special simply because of that and everything he had been through and in truth, that connection the two of them shared meant that she had begun to place Kamijou in a position that she didn't know she had until she had it pointed out by that distasteful Saint.

At some point, she had felt as though Kamijou was someone that she could rely on when she was in trouble and would be someone who would listen to what she had to say and give an honest opinion to her, regardless of her position in life and what the world thought of her.

Birdway had seen Kamijou as someone who would push her forward when she fell behind, lift her up when she fell and carry her when she could not stand. Those terms and things could be applied to anyone however the uniqueness that Kamijou had and how special he was to her had made Birdway place Kamijou in a particular category, no matter how annoying she might find it to be when she realised that fact.

And that was the category of a 'big brother'.

Birdway had found someone that would rub her head when she was feeling down, someone that would surely be by her side when the world had crumbled around her. She had felt that Kamijou in that sense was a special person for being able to worm his way into her life like the annoyance he was and, without any effort of his own, manage to get her to think that way about him.

Such thinking was definitely not wrong or harmful. In fact, in probably made her better as a person as she found someone to rely on that had no or few connections with the Magic side and made no attempts to actually stay immersed in its dealings. He was only brought in by chance and that in turn made him a kind of 'safe zone'.

He would always be there in his dorm room with those other girls. He would always open his door for her (even though he would probably whine about it endlessly) and Birdway would surely enjoy herself when it came down to it in his company.

She had thought that the relationship that the two of them shared could go endlessly like that: that she would be able to say a few words and the boy would cross oceans to see her and help her with her problems.

Birdway had been satisfied with that. She had been content with that and the fact that Kamijou would never know the place that he held in her heart. She was content in knowing that when she held his hand, Kamijou would never notice the faint warmth that covered her cheeks as she gripped that strong hand that would always reach out to her in trouble.

He was someone that she could rely on, someone without motivations or plots, usually being completely honest and not wanting to sugar-coat things to make them seem better or worse.

Leivinia Birdway had been happy like that, happy with a 'big brother' like Kamijou Touma by her side.

Did she want it to escalate into something further? Into something beyond Birdway merely thinking of Kamijou as a 'big brother' figure? She could not say but the important thing was right now, that peace and connection the two of them had been destroyed.

All by a simple rumour.

That Kamijou Touma was looking for a girlfriend.

Birdway had literally stared at the intercepted communication that had been sent to Necessarius, reading and re-reading the communication before gritting her teeth as she realised what it meant.

For all intents and purposes, as someone that was supported by Kamijou, she should have been happy for the boy. But amidst that, her own selfishness came to her mind as she realised one very basic thing.

If Kamijou Touma had gotten himself a girlfriend, would he have time for her? Would Leivinia Birdway even be allowed into his life in the same casual fashion that she had waltzed into it before?

As a hypothetical, what if Kamijou had gotten a girlfriend? He would spend time with her, engage in passionate love making sessions and, judging by his misfortune, would die from the sexual stimulation in the lead up to having sex (Birdway hoped it would be this as it gave her an excuse to laugh at his funeral). While those ideas were on the extreme end of the scope, the reality was that Kamijou would be spending time with his girlfriend.

In other words, _he would prioritise someone else over Birdway._

He would not take her calls immediately. There would be a lag between her calling him and him answering. When she had a problem and his girlfriend did as well, it was obvious who he would choose. He would abandon Birdway for someone else.

Leivinia Birdway would become abandoned.

By no means was she alone and she was sure she would be able to cope but the raw word, the simple word 'abandoned' hit her like a ton of bricks.

At some point, she had felt that that connection between them was so important that she did not want to lose it. It might have been selfish but she wanted the boy to be at her beck and call, for her to say "jump" and for him to say "how high?". Well, he would probably say something stupid along the lines of "Huh? Jump? Is this some kind of cardiovascular or weight loss technique? You don't seem that fat Birdway-chan" which would result in him jumping away from Birdway as she tried to strangle him.

But the point was, she did not want to lose the connection.

She did not want Kamijou Touma to get a girlfriend, if only for the fact that doing so would mean that her position would be lessened and she would no longer become the important person she felt she was in his life.

So she had to reach Kamijou Touma first and determine whether this rumour was true or not. She had to know whether he was looking for a girlfriend or not.

If he wasn't, well then everything was fine and everything would return to the way it was.

If it was true though…Birdway wasn't sure what she would do. How would she react? Would she tell Kamijou that she enjoyed their time together? Her pride wouldn't allow that so she would leave it but would she be satisfied with the conclusion when she knew she could have prevented it and played a part in it?

Leivinia Birdway simply did not want to be left alone by Kamijou Touma.

That was the only reason, the _true _reason she was here in this City now, ready to ask the boy whether he was looking for a girlfriend.

If she did reach him first though, then she already had her plan formulated. She would take him as hers, moving from the position of 'big brother' into 'boyfriend'. Doing so would mean that he was basically a slave to Birdway's will (something that he was already something of) but it would be made official and in that sense, there was one result in that that Birdway was happy with.

And that was that he would never abandon Birdway for anyone.

That fact alone brought a sense of companionship and supportto Birdway's heart as she felt her cheeks warm from the idea of such warmth being given to her from another person in the way that it was.

Sure, she was haughty, arrogant, underage as she was only 12, pretty bossy, flat as a board and sadistic both as a person and the boss of the Dawn-Coloured Sunlight, but she still had desires and wants.

Leivinia Birdway did not want to be left alone by Kamijou Touma. She did not want him to abandon her for some other girl, who was his girlfriend if she could help it.

And this desire was merely the one that seemed so important right now.

So she had to reach Kamijou Touma first and confirm the validity of this rumour.

While she had caused quite a bit of chaos outside the City, upon arriving at it and seeing numerous girls all running around the City, looking around frantically, it was not hard to put two and two together and discover that these girls were doing the exact same thing that she was.

Which in turn only made her extremely pissed that she had all of this competition in the way.

Yet it made her frown.

She had intercepted the communication to Necessarius _yesterday_. While yes, it would have taken a day for her to get here, it seemed off that people in this City were reacting to it now. Was it possible that the rumour itself had not been known until today, i.e. when Birdway would have reached Academy City if she had hurried?

She had learned of it yesterday and it would take her an entire day to get here. Looking at the time zones, given she hurried, then by the time she had arrived in Academy City an entire day would have passed.

But if the rumour had been released yesterday, then the people in the City where the boy lived had an advantage. Naturally, this type of thing was not something one asked on the phone and Birdway assumed that the girls here at least had some sense of pride in making sure that they stuck with the unofficial 'rules' that investigating this rumour held.

But, assuming that no one called him, why were there people looking for him _today_? Were they still looking for him after the release of the rumour yesterday, which was when Birdway had received it when one considered time zones? Or…had they only received it today and were acting on it?

If that was the case, then why had she received it yesterday? Why had the City received it today? If anything, doing so seemed like it would only ensure some magicians that had an interest in the rumour would invade the City to confirm it, just at the same time that the residents of the City that had an interest in the rumour would start investigating it.

Birdway narrowed her eyes.

It was like someone was trying to start a conflict between Magic and Science once more…using this rumour as a trigger for war.

Still…the fact that a rumour such as 'Kamijou Touma is looking for a girlfriend' could possibly start a war if the Magic and Science sides collided was pure misfortune for the boy.

Whatever the case though, Birdway shook off the thought and had proceeded to her goal (Kamijou Touma's student dorm) upon entering the City and lo and behold, the sight she should come across upon getting far enough.

If her information was correct, which it usually was, then the girl that was standing on top of the unmanned vehicle that looked like a tank with the turret on the roof was Misaka Mikoto even though the two of them had already met. The #3 Level 5, the Railgun.

And the girl that had her head out of an Anti-Skill van window with the megaphone in hand would have been the #5 Level 5 of Academy City, Mental Out.

Seeing that these two girls, actually it was more accurate to call them 'weapons' right now, were probably doing the same thing she was, then there was no way that Birdway was going to ignore this. Upon seeing them, she had taken out her Symbolic Weapon, changed it into a sword and launched an attack through the air the moment she felt it was needed as she had watched the two Level 5s.

And that moment was when one of the Anti-Skill officers that was likely being controlled by Shokuhou had pressed the trigger for the RPG he was holding in his hand. The wind blade that Birdway had created had sliced through the air, slicing the fired warhead as it flew in between the two Level 5s and exploded.

Wind had blown in all directions as Birdway had tossed her hair, feeling rather proud of herself that she had made such a flashy entrance as she spoke her intentions and Mikoto spoke her name.

Her intentions?

To make sure that she had the easiest time when it came to getting to Kamijou Touma by taking out the most troublesome and bothersome opponents that could cause the most trouble first.

And after that rough introduction, she wasted no time in cracking her neck and swinging her Symbolic Weapon in front of her, pointing it straight at the two Level 5s.

"Nice to see you again #3. #5, I'm sure that we've never met in the canon yet but as you so conveniently learned, I'm Leivinia Birdway. But that's not important. What's important…is that I'm the one that is going to put you both to sleep. I'll make it quick."

Shokuhou Misaki, with her head poked outside the side of the Anti-Skill van had her mouth open however closed it as she turned to face Mikoto and spoke through the megaphone once more.

"Misaka-san, who is this midget with a rather high amount of arrogance ability? I believe you said her name was Birdway? Judging by her…assets, would it not be more accurate to call her…" Shokuhou turned to face Birdway despite talking to Mikoto as she needlessly puffed out her rather impressive chest. Birdway twitched as Shokuhou spoke, a gleam in her eyes that suggested malice.

And the words only supported that hypothesis.

"Boardway? She is flat as one after all."

Birdway felt something in her mind snap as she twitched one eye before she felt her face break out into a grin. That one expression seemed to freeze the air and killing intent came over the entire intersection and the girls that had been caught up in that chaos immediately scattered about in order to avoid what was surely going to be hell.

"Can I assume that you wanting to see that idiot is for the same reasons as us?" asked Misaka Mikoto carefully while ignoring Shokuhou. Birdway cracked her neck.

"You already know the answer to that question. I'll be reaching him first to confirm this rumour. Is that enough for you? I'd apologise…but I think that that's not necessary."

"…I agree."

"As do I~!"

Tensions filled the air as the killing intent started radiating from the two Level 5s as well as the leader of the Dawn-Coloured Sunlight as they all stared at each other, Misaka Mikoto with her Ten Legs, Shokuhou Misaki with her Anti-Skill forces and Leivinia Birdway with her Symbolic Weapon.

No extra words were needed as those three monsters moved at once.

Birdway leaped forward just as Mikoto advanced with her Ten Legs, forming an Iron Sand Sword within her hand as Birdway brandished her own sword like an expert. The leader of the Dawn-Coloured Sunlight had jumped to face the person that she felt was the greatest threat to her right now; the #3. She swung her sword downwards as it collided with the Iron Sand Sword, sparks flying from the contact of the vibrating sand particles and the magical protective layer that surrounded the Symbolic Weapon.

At the same time though, Mikoto used what control she had of the Ten Legs through her hacking to fire the turret straight for where Shokuhou's Anti-Skill vehicle was. However, having already anticipated such the others inside had already bailed, and they threw themselves to the ground as the shell smashed into the van.

It exploded instantly as Shokuhou fell to the ground and placed both of her hands over her head, something that was hardly registered by the other two girls who were clearly out for blood. If the boy who had unwittingly caused all this trouble had been here, he probably would have asked them if this serious fighting was worth all they were doing but for those two monsters right now, that hardly mattered to them.

Birdway swung her Symbolic Weapon horizontally as Mikoto met it with her own Iron Sand Sword held vertically in front of her chest. However, even then it was Birdway that had the advantage.

While espers were thought to be the super powered humans of the world, there was one basic weakness in their ability. While they had numerous applications of it, there was only one such 'source' of it. For example, Misaka Mikoto had the ability to hack profusely and create those iron sand swords.

She could not however pass through walls and teleport. Her ability was constrained to its personal limits and there were things that she could not do using her ability to which she focused upon things that she could do in order to make up for it.

Magic though was a completely different ball game. While there were numerous applications, magicians hardly focused upon one discipline, especially magicians like Birdway. They expanded and grew, seeking new disciplines and legends to incorporate into their own magic which meant that while they had their applications and limits, they could always be surpassed.

Birdway herself could control electricity using magic, although not the extent that the #3 had it like using Railguns. However, unlike Misaka Mikoto, Leivinia Birdway had other disciplines that went far beyond what Mikoto could do with her ability. She could access possibilities that Mikoto could not by branching into different fields and searching disciplines from them.

It might have been her arrogance talking but it went without saying that it was the Magic side that held silent supremacy in this world. It was just that the Science side had yet to realise it due to its hidden nature.

Of course, it was only her opinion and if anyone asked that to a Science side member the opinion would naturally differ. But the point of fact here was that even though Birdway was using her Symbolic Weapon, _by no means was it the only weapon that she had at her disposal._

Birdway knew of Mikoto's ignorance about Magic or rather her inability to understand that there were systems beyond the rules of Science. She had tried to explain Hawaii and the Ichihanaransai using the rules that she had grown accustomed to and that in turn meant that the rules of the Magic side were things that she could not comprehend.

Which meant that Birdway's next move was all the sweeter.

She held out a hand, holding it right next to her as she allowed a fireball to form there with a click of her fingers. Mikoto's eyes went wide at the sight as she was using both of her hands to support the Iron Sand Sword and maintain the control she had over the Ten Legs meaning she could not spare the calculation capacity to counterattack in a particular way.

"This ends now."

Birdway thrust her hand forward as Mikoto responded with a drop of sweat rolling down her cheek.

"Damn it!"

Using magnetism, she was flung backwards as she headed towards a building that was behind her. Birdway's fireball launched itself through the air, following Mikoto like a homing missile as the girl redirected her trajectory upwards. She headed towards one of the higher floors of the building however Birdway had no such control of the fireball as it melted the glass of the window of one of the floors in its linear path before entering the building itself.

Birdway clicked her tongue in response as people screamed inside the building, the fire alarms blaring as Birdway followed her target in the air with narrowed eyes. Mikoto had relinquished control of the Ten Legs to escape so that meant her calculation focus would be around her Iron Sand Sword.

That in turn though was hardly good news for Birdway.

But not in the sense that it meant that Mikoto had the chance to fully focus on her abilities and use them as she saw fit as she had managed to perfect them to reach Level 5.

Instead, it meant that the _unmanned vehicle that was the Ten Legs_ no longer had Mikoto controlling its movements.

Mikoto had not just managed to grab a Ten Legs out of some random warehouse. She had found one patrolling the streets due to the Code Red that had been issued in the City because of the mass of females that had been running around. Academy City's highest alert level had been raised, something that was primarily raised for terrorists invading into the City so that in itself only gave an indication to how dire the situation was with all of these girls running around in search of one boy.

That in turn meant that numerous unmanned vehicles had been sent out in order to control the situation at hand, something that Mikoto had managed to take control of. All she had needed to do was hack into the system, rewrite it and voila, she had control of her own fighting force to use against whoever stood in her way.

However, that in turn meant overwriting the original commands. As the Ten Legs had been utilised in order to control the crowds and deal with any rampaging espers in the chaos, that gave a hint as to its original commands. Anything that attacked it would be seen as a threat and possibly, anyone that got near it that did not meet specific 'criteria' would also be attacked as self-defence.

And it was obvious what category Leivinia Birdway was a part of as both an intruder and someone on top of the Ten Legs itself, as she had hopped there in order to meet Mikoto with her Symbolic Weapon.

The movement of the unmanned weapon was fast, robotic and swift.

In an instant, the turret on the top faced her way as she was looking at Mikoto, only for Birdway to look at it. However, by then it was far too late. The turret fired its rounds point blank as they struck Birdway in the chest. The girl was flung from the Ten Legs and onto the road from the force of the shells.

She bounced along the road a couple of times before righting herself and skidding along the ground. Yet, she did so _completely unharmed_. She coughed a few times and looked shocked but that was the extent of the damage. Mikoto had had an expression of brief worry on her face as she knew the girl before she had been struck however it turned into one of shock when she saw the girl had practically no marks on her despite the fact she had taken the shells head on, with where the shells had hit smoking lightly.

It was nothing special, the reason why Birdway was unharmed. By misinterpreting the Hanged Man card in the Major Arcana Tarot cards she could divert damage done to her via piercing means to the card which was hidden within her dress. The shells, while it was an insult to suggest it, definitely had that function, even though they likely obliterated a body in the process.

Thus, by using that Major Arcana Tarot card, she had managed to escape injury from the shells as the damage had transferred to the card.

Yet, the facial expression and the wound to her pride was something that suggested that Birdway had lost more than she could have cared to say.

"Oh, you're not getting away with that one."

"Unfortunately though Boardway-chan, I think I'll take my opportunity to take you down when I get it. It seems as though you have equal or greater monstrous ability to Misaka-san over there judging from what you just survived. Which means I have no qualms doing this~! Fire!"

A sweet voice that spoke horrible words came from the side as Birdway turned to look and saw that numerous Anti-Skill officers were pointing their guns at her. Although they had their visors down, Birdway was certain that she saw the sparkle of stars in their eyes despite the darkness there as she looked at the person that had spoken.

Shokuhou Misaki was protected by an Anti-Skill riot shield as she gave a cute wink despite the horrible words she had spoken, clearly feeling no aspect of regret in the slightest.

Birdway though only groaned when she saw the threat of the numerous rifles being pointed at her. Even though Anti-Skill usually only used rubber bullets, she hardly figured that Mental Out, the #5 Level 5 in this City would be so kind. Especially when it came to this issue and the person surrounding it.

She probably had swapped out the rubber bullets with actual ones, just like the Ten Legs which had shot her with actual shells instead of rubber ones. It was clear that Academy City was taking this threat to its usual peace extremely seriously but even in the face of that, Leivinia Birdway only groaned.

"Are you serious?! You seriously think that that can-"

Birdway never finished her sentence as the Anti-Skill members opened fire. The bullets slammed into Birdway's body as the girl grunted in response. She recoiled as she was hit with numerous bullets before falling to the floor, limp and unmoving. Silence deafened the area as all eyes looked at the girl that was lying on the ground but noticing one thing.

There was not a single drop of blood to be seen despite Birdway having been basically executed.

Then, as if she were watching a horror movie, Shokuhou watched as Leivinia Birdway rose from the ground. She coughed once and spat on the ground, wiping her mouth as she looked at those that had shot her.

She only maintained an expression of boredom as she held forward her Symbolic Weapon which had changed form into that of a cup.

"Like I was saying before I was rudely interrupted you cow. _Do you seriously think that that can hurt me?"_

With the effects of the Hanged Man card still in play, Birdway had managed to survive the onslaught of bullets even though, just like before, her body was indeed affected by the shock of the blasts. The turret blast from before had been enough to shake her core but she had prepared enough defences before coming here. The bullets that had been sent her way hardly gave her the same type of shock but it still pissed her off more than she could say as she had been interrupted.

Without any word, Birdway swung the form of the Symbolic Weapon that represented water as a torrent burst from the small form. Unlike a torrent though that had a specific direction, this one instantly spread out the moment it left the cup, acting like a gigantic wave that absorbed the bullets that were now heading for Birdway.

In a ridiculous motion, it pressed onwards, the wave rising like a tsunami as it advanced, the Anti-Skill members watching in complete shock at the scene in front of them. Shokuhou did the same as she instantly released control of the Anti-Skill members, running as fast as she could and getting behind the Ten Legs.

The destruction came a moment later.

The tsunami smashed into the ignorant Anti-Skill officers as they screamed and were tossed in all directions. The Ten Legs absorbed the impact of the wave, skidding along the ground but remaining in place due to its heavy weight. Water splashed everywhere as Shokuhou went white in the face as the tsunami continued. Misaka Mikoto watched overhead with that same expression as the wave pressed onwards, smashing into the largest object that lay in its path.

The office building that stood next to the main road didn't even stand a chance.

The wave smashed through the windows, engulfing each and every floor as people inside were swept along with the water. The wave entered through one window and exited throughout the other as everyone inside the building was caught up in the chaos, being trapped in the water as they were forcibly ejected from the building by the wave exiting through the other side.

Glass rained everywhere and people screamed as they hit the ground however the water from the wave exiting the building on the other side broke their fall, only for them to drift along the ground for a few metres with the running water.

Shokuhou and Mikoto found themselves unable to speak as they looked at the sight, immediately going on guard as they realised the monster that they were up against here.

For the most part, she had clashed with Misaka Mikoto, taken a tank shell head on, survived a firing squad of Anti-Skill before releasing a single attack that had taken out an entire building's occupants and evacuated them to the other side. If she had wanted, it was likely that she could have sent the wave crashing with enough force into the building that it would have ripped it from its foundations despite the earthquake-resistance construction of Academy City in mind.

The two Level 5s gulped as thoughts raced through their mind.

Mikoto had seen Birdway's power first hand in Hawaii and Academy City during the Ichihanaransai so even now she was positive of something. She was positive that this was _only a fraction of that girl's immense power._ As for Shokuhou, even she understood that there was no way that Birdway herself was out of tricks when she could block an Iron Sand Sword and create a wave as large as the one she had within seconds.

Something was coming and whatever it was, it was not going to lead to a pleasant battle. Birdway may have evacuated the occupants of one building but that only demonstrated her monstrous power.

Both Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki had felt as though their greatest opponent was their fellow Level 5.

They only paled as they realised that it was hardly the case.

Come to think of it, why was she even here?! What did Kamijou Touma mean to her?!

None of that mattered now though as those two Level 5s only realised that they had a powerful rival in front of them. They looked at each other from where they were; Shokuhou from behind the Ten Legs and Mikoto on the wall of the building that was opposite the one that Birdway had sent the wave into.

They might not have liked it but they understood the moment that they looked at each other what was going through the other's mind.

_We need to defeat her._

They were confident in their ability to take each other on however right now, when it came to Birdway, she was a black box. Those two espers of the Science side did not understand her power in the slightest meaning that they had to take out the irregular factor if they wanted to proceed.

When it came to this rumour, the thinking of 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' did not apply. Everyone was suspect and everyone had their own motivations, which in truth was only the one and the same.

But right now, they had to abandon those ideas and make sure that they took out this person that they were not sure they could defeat alone. Both Level 5s were sure that in an even match, they would stand on even levels even though Mikoto had the advantage but it was slight.

Yet that didn't apply here.

Something had to be done about Leivinia Birdway to take her out of the running for this rumour and if anyone, the tag-team that was the #3 and the #5 were the perfect ones to do it.

Even though they both felt like throwing up at the idea of working together when they were enemies all the same.

Still, this was no time for dawdling as instantly, Shokuhou leaped out with remote in hand and Mikoto descended from the building wall with an Iron Sand Sword in her grip. They stood next to each other, in a rare sight that would have indicated to anyone that knew them well that they both were facing a deep crisis that only they understood.

And they faced their opponent….

"Huh?"

"Huh?"

Or at least they should have.

Leivinia Birdway…

Was gone.

* * *

"Bfhfhf?!"

The girls flew through the air as Leivinia Birdway swung her Symbolic Weapon to the side. The sword form it had taken meant that it had the power of the wind attribute and it was that which Birdway used to her utmost ability.

That in turn meant that the numerous girls that were standing in her way were flung into the air as Birdway leaped underneath them before they crashed to the ground. By that time though, Birdway had already managed to proceed further into the City without even looking back at the destruction she had caused.

Although she had no idea if it applied to the others inside this City, she was aware of one thing.

If she approached Kamijou Touma and asked him about the validity of the rumour, only for him to learn that she had been someone that had incited the death of someone else then there was only one response that he was going to give; rejection. It didn't matter whether or not it was with someone he knew or not, the fact of the matter was that if he learned that someone's life had been taken because of them, then he was sure to reject their request outright to be his girlfriend.

As a result, despite hating it to her entire core, Birdway had been holding back this entire time. It might have seemed monstrous given what she had done previously but even then, when she had sent the wave to the building before retreating, she had made sure that the water was strong enough to capture everyone inside the building inside its grasp.

That way, when the water was sent flowing out from the other side, it would act as enough of a cushion to make sure that there were injuries but no deaths. She had basically created the world's most adlib waterslide but the monstrosity and fear of what she had done had had enough of an effect of portraying Birdway as a monster that no one wanted to deal with.

She would though exert the proper amount of force for the right opponent though, as Shokuhou Misaki had done against Misaka Mikoto with the RPG. Against anyone else, she was sure that the #5 would not have used such a method and the same went for Mikoto; Birdway was sure she would not use the Ten Legs against an average esper. She had only used it against Shokuhou because her opponent was another Level 5.

In that sense, it was possible that everyone that was chasing this rumour knew one thing: if they caused one death, it didn't matter who it was or whether or not it was connected to them, then everything would be over.

Kamijou Touma would reject them all in order to find the one that had caused that death and punch their lights out because of what they had done because of him. He would surely never live it down and enter a deep pit of despair that, while he would manage to pick himself up from, it was likely he would seal off his mind and any chance of ever having a girlfriend.

Thus everyone who was chasing after this rumour had placed the silent limiter on themselves to avoid killing.

However, even if someone like Birdway had recognised that very fact too and was holding back because of it, it didn't mean that she didn't attack those that needed attacking.

Her destination was in the distance. The boy's high school dormitory was clear in the horizon and Birdway applied more leg strength into her next jump as she sailed through the air and landed on one of the building's opposite the dorm itself.

Having spent enough time with Kamijou himself, Birdway knew one thing about him.

If anyone was stupid enough to hole up in his dorm when he was being chased around for an unknown reason in order to wait out the chaos, then it was him. While the idea of choosing a 'location where no one would think to look', one only had to think of things from Kamijou's perspective to choose a place where 'Kamijou would think no one would think to look'.

As such, one of the places that met that criteria was the dorm that was in front of her.

Birdway scanned the doors as she looked on from the opposite building, finding the right door in the distance and was about to leap off the building in order to reach it before it happened.

Without warning, a lightning spear flew from the air from her right as Birdway turned to face it at the last second, having heard the ominous crackling of the spear itself. She raised her Symbolic Weapon and swung it, a blade made of air slicing through the air and cutting the lightning spear.

The spear and the blade collided, sending sparks in all directions as they gave off crackling sounds and created flashes of light that were dangerous to look at. But even then, Birdway never let her eyes drift off her opponent in front of her.

Misaka Mikoto panted heavily as she looked at the girl standing on the building next to her, as she too had managed to get on the roof of a building that was opposite the Imagine Breaker's high school dormitory room. Sweat ran down her face and she glared at Birdway who merely turned to face her completely now.

"Found you."

"Congratulations. But it doesn't mean anything. I'll be taking him for myself if you don't mind."

"Why? …What could you possibly see in that idiot to chase after him like this?! I demand an answer!"

Mikoto's yells were desperate as if she were trying to console an issue within her own heart however Birdway merely responded by pointing the sword in her grasp straight at the Level 5. And she bit back with a response that only seemed to dig into the girl's heart all the more.

"I could ask you the same thing."

Mikoto flinched, as if realising that that response was the only one that could be given in this time, in this place and in response to that question. She gritted her teeth as she thought from Birdway's perspective, how Misaka Mikoto's own reasoning must feel like a mystery to her as well.

They could have talked it out of course however even then, it would only result in one conclusion being reached.

That they could not let the other girl reach that boy first.

Ironically though, such a conclusion was something that was already evident in the mind of the girls right now as they stared each other down.

Sparks flew from Mikoto's bangs as she prepared for the upcoming battle as the two girls fought for supremacy with the ultimate victor being the one that got what she wanted. Birdway cracked her neck as she twisted the arm with the Symbolic Weapon however it was Mikoto that spoke once more despite the fact that the both of them were ready to fight.

"Hey. Haven't you noticed? We're hardly the only ones that realise that one of the spots that idiot could be hiding in is his dorm. Which begs the question…where is everyone?"

Birdway paused as soon as those words came from her mouth as she turned her head and looked at the area around the dorm itself with a panic rising in her mind. It was empty, no one standing there and the entire area was quiet save for the chaos that was happening in the City with shouts, gunshots and the sound of esper powers being released all over the place.

Birdway hardly felt as though she was the only one that had seen that boy's idiocy and guessed that he was hiding in his dorm so that in turn begged the question. The one simple, important and vital question.

_Where was everyone?_

A thought appeared in the back of her mind as Birdway turned to face the #3 and shouted a single question with a roar erupting from her throat.

_"Where is that #5!?"_

"Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii~!"

A voice came from below them as Birdway took a step forward and saw the huffed out and clearly exhausted Shokuhou Misaki sitting on a bench, waving herself with her hand as she waved the other to Birdway. She had shouted despite her exhausted state and gave a malicious grin. She held in one hand a remote that she held forward and gave a cheeky wink.

"It's time to bring this to an end!"

"That's right. Shokuhou, now!" Mikoto yelled while looking down at the girl while sparks flew from her bangs as Birdway looked directly at her with clenched teeth as she readied her Symbolic Weapon. Whatever those two Level 5s had in store, it was clearly her against them. But she had resolve, a goal and the desire to make sure that Kamijou Touma never left her.

And despite everything, Leivinia Birdway found herself wanting that more than anything right now.

"Regnum771!"

Birdway shouted her magic name as Mikoto bent her entire body as the doors leading to the roof of both buildings suddenly burst open as Anti-Skill officers holding rifles and espers from the City pouring onto the roofs with weapons such as fire extinguishers and rakes in their hands. They all pointed them at Birdway as the girl felt a drop of sweat running down her cheek.

She was holding back to make sure that Kamijou did not reject those that had taken action because of this rumour and to make sure that he did not bear the guilt of a death due to a rumour because of him.

But the easiest way to deal with these opponents would be to throw them off the roof. And even Birdway knew that such a fall would definitely kill them and she had a lack of confidence when it came to the idea of fighting two Level 5s and protecting all those she harmed at the same time.

This…was definitely going to be tricky.

But it seemed as though some twisted fate was on her side as Shokuhou shouted from below. She shouted words that overturned any assumption that Birdway had and immediately made her grin maliciously in response.

_"Attack both of those on the roof_! Make sure that they have a massive amount of busyness ability!"

Immediately after those words ripped through the air, the Anti-Skill officers and students that had stars in their eyes diverted their attention to the two people on the roof; both Misaka Mikoto and Leivinia Birdway. Mikoto went agape at the fact that she had been betrayed at the last minute however she twitched and closed her mouth upon realising one very basic thing.

What had she expected!?

That twisted breast monster had taken advantage of her position and Mikoto's trust (even though she had been planning on betraying Shokuhou as well when the time was right) but even so, she felt a massive surge of anger leaping through her chest.

And she let it loose as she let loose a roar and a massive burst of electricity through the air.

"SHOKUHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"

Birdway though only grinned at having been placed in the same boat as Mikoto at the last minute, shaking her head. She had known after all and she was sure that that Level 5 had too, even though she had placed it to the side for an instant.

That the thinking of 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' did not apply here in the slightest.

"Ha ha hah ha hah! Let's go then amateur! I'll show you the difference between you and me before taking on that Level 5 that you got left behind by!" Birdway let out that shout as she leaped at Mikoto with her sword in hand.

The electricity that had been dispersed by Mikoto faded as the girl turned to face Birdway with an iron sand sword within her own grip as she let it collide with Birdway's. Sparks flew everywhere from the contact but even then, they weren't only fighting each other.

There was the clicking of rifles as the Anti-Skill officers that were being controlled raised them to the opponents that were facing each other as both of the girls turned to look at the rifles pointed their way. They recognised the threat and instantly their minds turned in order to find a way out of the predicament that they found themselves in.

It was Mikoto though that saved the both of them as she jumped back, changing the form of her iron sand sword so that it turned into more of a whip that followed her movements at will. It extended and sliced all of the rifles in half as the Anti-Skill officers pulled the triggers.

Clicking filled the air as the Anti-Skill officers pulled useless triggers as they all looked down at the halves of the rifles that were at their feet, unsure of how to react. Birdway though took the opportunity that presented itself to her, leaping forward to the Anti-Skill members that were standing stunned.

One of the controlled students though swung a fire extinguisher at her but Birdway merely dodged by angling her body to the side as she slammed her feet into one of the Anti-Skill members. He was launched backwards and collided with the members behind him, bodies sprawling everywhere in the struggle as Birdway picked up her target.

The now useless magazine of the rifle she ejected from the rifle as Birdway instantly changed the form of the Symbolic Weapon in her hand. She turned it into a wand, something that represented the element of fire as she faced Mikoto fully. She chucked the magazine with all of her might at the girl before holding forward her Symbolic Weapon.

Flames gathered at the very tip of the wand before she fired them instantly, the form of the flames turning into that of a fireball that launched itself and flew towards the magazine, hitting it completely.

The entire thing burst into flames even though there was no flammable liquid covering the magazine itself as the thing fell to the ground in front of Mikoto as she looked at it with a frown.

That proved to be her mistake though as she looked up and saw the body of a student that Shokuhou was controlling being thrown straight at her. She cried out as the body hit her, throwing her backwards as she started to skid along the roof, only to come to a stop near the edge of the roof.

She let the body drop onto the ground in front of her though as she looked up at Birdway, only to see that the girl had already approached, but not appearing in front of Mikoto. Instead, she had run up to the magazine that she had set on fire and kicked it with all of might at the girl.

The flaming object flew through the air as Mikoto's eyes went wide as she realised what Birdway was trying to do. Instead of attacking her head on, she was going to use the unfired bullets as her attack.

Mikoto herself did not know much about guns but she knew that the threat of one was how a gun ignited the gunpowder inside a bullet, giving it direction and letting it fly in a particular direction. However even then, bullets themselves could be dangerous even without a gun igniting the gunpowder.

By setting the magazine on fire, it was probably Birdway's intention to heat it up to the extent that it produced enough heat that it ignited the gunpowder. Doing so would fire the bullets in their unfired states and with no direction to launch the bullets they would merely explode and shoot out to the only thing that contained them.

The magazine would absorb the impact but even then, it was obvious that it would not hold; the bullets would break through it when they ignited and in a way, the shells that flew out from the magazine, if they pierced the skin would be just as effective as a proper fired bullet itself though it would have less effect due to the lack of speed at which they were fired.

As Birdway's intention was clear then; she planned to use the magazine as a makeshift grenade and when the bullets' gunpowder ignited, she wanted Mikoto to be the one to receive it head on and receive the bullets that would fly out of the magazine when they exploded.

Those quick thoughts filled Mikoto's mind as she gritted her teeth while looking at the oncoming threat.

"Damn!"

The dodge was simple, all she had to do was duck down as the flaming magazine flew over her head and landed on the staircase of the building opposite; Kamijou Touma's student dorm. Mikoto though wasted no time in looking back at her opponent but by then it was already too late.

Birdway had grabbed her by the front of her shirt and instantly threw her to the ground. Mikoto coughed as she felt pain run up her back from the impact. She tried to raise her head however a punch to the face meant that she recoiled as Birdway stood back up and faced her destination.

She had been provided a few seconds with the distraction the flaming magazine had provided to bridge the gap between them. She had managed to give herself a few seconds to reach that dorm over there and that room on the seventh floor where she saw that horrendous Level 5.

Those few seconds though were all that she needed as she bent her body down, angling her body so that it met its target and leaped from the roof.

The force that she did so with, something that was heightened with magic instantly blew away the edge of the roof that she had been on. Concrete and dust sprayed up into Mikoto's eyes as she looked on in shock however Birdway managed to bridge the gap between her building and the one opposite in less than a second.

What she was going for though was not just that bridging of the gap.

She changed her Symbolic Weapon in that of a disc to represent earth as she swung it in the air as she started to approach the wall in front of her, passing by the shocked Shokuhou Misaki. She didn't care though as she manipulated the earth of the wall, crumbling its form and weakening its structure as she prepared for impact.

Using her shoulder to receive most of the force, Birdway broke through the wall of the room that she had focused on as dust and dirt kicked up into the air. The occupants of the room itself shouted out in surprise at the sudden intrusion as Birdway touched her feet down on something within the room after having knocked over something.

Given what she remembered of the room itself, what she had knocked over was probably the refrigerator. Also, given the layout of the room, what she was standing on was probably the kitchen countertop.

She had made it into Kamijou Touma's room.

And she immediately spoke the reason why she was here.

"Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

"Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

The desperate shouts of the girls that were outside sounded pained, lost and broken. One could basically hear the tears within them as Birdway felt a fraction of guilt. She knew that if she had been in the reverse position that she might make the exact same plea of rejection but in the end, she had won.

Leivinia Birdway was once more victorious.

And as the winner, she was entitled to her spoils, regardless of what the others felt about it.

And so through the dust, smoke, painful cries from the girls outside and the coughs inside, Birdway made her announcement.

"Kamijou Touma! _Is it true you're looking for a girlfriend?!"_

Birdway asked the question that would validate the rumour or not. She had the first strike and depending on the answer, she was the first person that had the chance to respond to it in front of the boy.

No one was taking this away from her and she could feel the tension within her chest as the milliseconds ticked by. The response that came was almost immediate but even so, for Birdway it seemed as though the world had extended the time to torture her soul and place pressure on the hearts of those that heard it.

But the response that came was something that no one expected.

"What?"

The dust slowly cleared as the coughing died down as all of the girls outside got a good look inside the room because Birdway had smashed through one wall by weakening the earth of it. Mikoto could not see the people inside but even so, the relative close distance between the buildings meant that she could hear what they were saying, especially since she was listening intently.

Shokuhou and Birdway though looked inside and saw two human figures within the dust that were looking at the girl that had just spoken. Their figures and outlines became clearer as Birdway could now place descriptions on those that had spoken.

One of the figures, one who had not spoken was looking stunned at the scene in front of her. Her hair was brown however one would notice the small shades of purple within it. She looked rather taken aback by the scene in front of her however the one thing that one had to notice when they looked at her, besides her casual clothes, was the Dragon Tooth hanging around her neck.

The other figure though, the one that had spoken had silver hair, wearing a nun's habit that had been dirtied by the dust that had come from Birdway breaking and entering. Her green eyes were wide with shock at what Birdway had said as her mind was clearly having its gears turn rapidly in response to what Birdway had said.

A calico cat was sitting on the bed, looking rather faint and in its mouth was the small doll-like figure of an exhibitionist with an eyepatch. The one good eye though looked at Birdway in the same expression of shock as the nun as it had its mouth open. The mind of that doll-like figure also turned rapidly as it was trying to process what Birdway had said.

Birdway knew all of the figures on sight.

Tatsugami Otohime.

Index, or the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, keeper of 103,001 grimoires with the new Message of Thelema.

And the former Magic God Othinus, who was being held in the mouth of the calico cat Sphynx.

But the most important party, Kamijou Touma, was not there.

"What did you say? What did you say about Touma?" Index asked that question in a careful tone as Birdway immediately shouted desperately back.

"No! Forget that! Where is he?! Where is Kamijou Touma?!" Birdway found her voice rising despite her usual calm composure as Index did not answer her question, ignoring her completely as she stared at the girl in front of her.

Her green eyes looked at the girl in an interrogative fashion, as if peering right into her very soul as those eyes sent a chill up Birdway's spine as she felt them looking at her. In truth, Birdway felt as though she should have been more careful. If she hadn't blabbed and instead confirmed an assumption she had had about the boy she was looking for, then maybe it wouldn't have turned out like this.

But it had and there was nothing she could do about it.

"What did you say about Touma? What's this about him looking for a girlfriend?"

Index asked that question as she slowly stood up, her entire stance suggesting that she was ready to take on the world the instant she received her answer. But in truth, even then it seemed as though she already had the desire to move forward despite anything Birdway might say.

The leader of the Dawn-Coloured Sunlight paled at that nun standing on her own two feet, radiating a strength and desire to move that pushed even the weakest people to do the extraordinary.

If anything, the box had been opened and whatever inside unleashed.

Leivinia Birdway had asked a question and involved three people (well more two and a half) that had not known about the rumour in the first place.

The rivals in those looking for Kamijou Touma had surely increased.

And thus, naturally, as did the challenge.

* * *

**We'll get into the Q &amp; A before my brief thoughts on this:**

**whwsms: Doing a sequel for last chapter MIGHT be a bit hard given how the end is sort of closed but I usually leave it open just the slightest in case others want a sequel on the matter though. So I've saved it just in case it needed to happen so you'll have to see and wait on that front unfortunately. I don't know about it though… I'm not too sure on doing 'side stories' of the BTL because of how fragmented they are so it would sort of feel odd doing it that way. Do you sort of get what I mean? They're one-shots so developing things in particular directions based on one of them would be kind of odd given how the fragments would be all over the place. Although it might be interesting to have both Seria and Misaki having a 'stalk-off' where they follow Touma around much to his misfortune.**

**KurobaraIto: It's been a while! And thank you for your kind words. I always end up developing emotions when it comes to these one-shots and in ACUL0 for some strange reason. I think then idea can be done in 7K words and it jumps to 11K just on emotions alone. I'm glad that you were touched though, at the very least it's what I was going for.**

**Anon Guest: Wannai and Awatsuki-chan were probably too chocked to make a record of it! …There could have been a 'disturbance in the Force' though. I mean, even Itsuwa made note of it in the canon you know~! I'm not too sure about a sequel though but I'm open to the idea!**

**seiker: Ah, I hope you cringed at the lines Touma gave when he was trying to do smooth. I dunno though about what would happen if Touma went smooth against someone he knew. I guess we could claim that it would end up as 'war' but at the same time I'd like to think that whoever he was smooth to would not find it that attractive when they analysed how he was acting (even though they would get embarrassed) because it's just acting and not the 'real' Touma. Again that goes back to the idea of the lie that Touma would be giving when he was acting but that's just me. I have a thing for people being true to themselves and getting what they want out of it. If the Kami-yan Disease came to grip the entire globe though, then there would be nothing but blood-related sisters and brothers all over the place. It might be interesting to fully analyse the effects of such though….. And NT 17 was good I felt.**

**Not necessary: Gbyack!? I hope that the typos were not something that put you off too much though. I thank you for your words though and I'm glad that you felt it was relatable. Whatever the case and how we view the series, Academy City is filled with normal people with normal problems like the ones provided last chapter so I wanted to show that here. The only thing then is to really just look at them for what they are and look at the possible solution Touma came up with to see if it works for the characters and if you want, you as well. But that's just me!**

**wildarms13: Ahahahaha! Well at the very least I'm glad that you enjoyed it but I'm not too sure how it would work on Uiharu. Mind you though, she IS a romantic so…..**

**Ihavezerogame: P-Please be patient. I literally have drafts up until chapter 87 so there's a lot of people in the line…**

**naruhinasakufan1: I think it comes down to perspective on whether Touma being smooth gives him a harem. For the most part, he would be a terrible harem protagonist because Index is more of an action series with the harem incidental so I felt that Touma trying to build a harem purposefully would just fall flat on its face. It's the fact that he was an Unwanted Harem that makes it appealing and has created this impression in our minds of him having a harem but I think him actively seeking one out would end up failing pretty badly. Just my opinion though.**

**salishious: It's better that way when Kongou doesn't have Touma's name. And I suppose your idea would work….as long as Ekaterina didn't eat both Sphynx and Dog the cat.**

**toumakamijou298: Ooooooooooh! Kumokawa is a MAYBE idea but Orsola sounds like a good idea for a sequel! I can just imagine that airheaded nun just messing around and throwing unknown innuendos here and there while Touma cries internally!**

**Guest: Not too sure about how this idea would work as I have never read Ranma 1/2 . HOWEVER, I do have an idea for a Suzushina Yuriko story in the future so hopefully this is something that sort of addresses this idea?**

**Guest00: Filed away although I'm not entirely sure what to do with it….**

**AleisterCrowley: Nice suggestion! I'm not too sure about the two of them getting together romantically but I do have a chapter planned where we get to see Touma from Fukiyose's perspective although whether there is any romance involved in that has yet to be seen…**

**Red Glasses: I'm not too sure about this but I do sort of have a Cendrillon chapter planned but there is to be no Touma within it.**

**Horizon Dreamer: Who knows where Frenda hides her weapons in the first place? Anime physics I guess.**

**pop2ww: Adding in Fukiyose into the Delta Force shenanigans is a whole 'nother ball game. I get the feeling that if she were to be added then it would become nothing more than perhaps one of the greatest troll groups of all times all the while one of the members is actively trying to not be a troll and Touma just wants no part of it. And of course it's an extensive list! Never underestimate the Fetish King! I hope though that you both sweatdropped and laughed at the same time before face palming at how cringy it really was. The separation between the 'fake' and the 'real' Kongou and Touma was at the heart of the chapter so analysing it and determining when which one shone through gives a better look at the interaction of the chapter itself. If Touma had managed to win Kongou over using his act, I think it would have been perhaps the worst thing for him because he was not being true to himself and he would have to face that lie again but you're right in that he just needs to be normal to help others, he doesn't need some sort of act. Ah, Touma accepting his worth in the eyes of others isn't something that can be covered in one chapter: it would takes heaps of development I would think which is more ACUL0 territory. Touma stepping down though was important because of how normal the problem Kongou was facing was. If she had relied on him all the way, then it would have been more something Kamisato would have done so stepping back and letting Kongou do all the hard work herself was the important thing. Touma just gave her the final pushing, saving her but the way that he backs off, I think he feels that it's more that Kongou 'saved herself' at the end of the day than anything he did. ….I'm not too sure what to say about how good-looking the characters look though. Touma can be dense as a rock though when he doesn't need to be which is what makes it funny.**

**Abraham: I felt that Abraham had an appearance close to Badou Nails from DOGS: Stray Dogs Howling in the Dark save for with shorter hair, a shorter figure and less attractive features; more like someone that has been beaten by time but still has a face that looks like it can go on. Abraham was the failed leader of Ninth Sephirah but the sort of tired look that he had on his face was what made him easy to manipulate at the hands of Harmonia's Cradle. Basically someone that looks tired after he lost so much with the faint light in his eyes like he can regain it all back through nothing but effort. Although he went down a broken path, he was just a leader that cared maybe a bit too much that he lost sight of his comrades.**

**Hoshea Sheinfled: I felt that Hoshea had a similar appearance to Bora from Fairy Tail (this is really a good series to work character appearances from). What I wanted from Hoshea was someone that looked as though he would cross the line for his leader. It's not necessarily meant to make him look devout but he believes strongly in someone to the extent of following them and not doubting their actions based on it despite his injuries which was the bandage to his face. He looks unassuming but that is mainly because of the fact that he was more a follower than a leader himself but he had the capabilities to become such but felt that he was more suited to just moving along with everyone else at the end of the day because of his assuming appearance.**

**I'll avoid describing the bland man though from Harmonia's Cradle until I cover that arc there.**

**Again, I regret choosing not to write extensive notes about the above chapter down here. Otherwise, you would hear about how I believe that Birdway's desire here to at least have Touma by her side and comfort her when she needs it to be incredibly important for her. She herself is divided about whether she has romantic feelings for the boy but for her right now, she finds nothing wrong with thinking about him as an 'Onii-chan' figure and the strength he provides her, although small.**

**This chapter was a bit long because of the fight scenes (I hope you enjoyed them even though they were brief) but I think if you look at this for the fight scenes, you might be in the wrong place. Personally, given the idea Master Knight gave me for this, the fight scenes have to be short and quick as the girls can't spend a massive amount of time 'defeating' their opponents but instead want to focus on distracting them long enough to escape and find Touma (wherever he is!). So looking at that I hope that those short fight scenes were enough for you to be satisfied.**

**There was also a little bit here about the fact that people in this City right now are refusing to kill their opponents because of this rumour. I added that in but I think it goes to show just how eager the girls are to make sure that Touma does not drag himself down in guilt. There is a certain line that can't be crossed here and I've established it thusly.**

**Still, Index joins the stage! Of course I was going to add her! I hope you look forward to the next part!**

**That timing issue might be important...**

**Not much else to say as these end notes are supposed to be short… Not to mention that the thanks to this happened in Part 1 so I hope that you don't feel as though I'm being rude not thanking you again here. Since this is a part of one 'big project', the main 'thanks' was in the First Part.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please.**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**To Be Continued….**


	38. The Zero Swap: HS equals KT

**And here we return with the requests! Honestly, I have to say that the amount of ideas that you people have are amazing and while I'm a bit let down that you guys don't have a try of them yourself (instead just leaving it to little old me), I am honoured to be able to take your ideas and write them down as I do.**

**The request that is going to be satisfied today though is going to be another two-shot! And don't worry, it isn't going to be as sad as CONS and PROS but rather leaning more to the light hearted side of things. So for those that are looking forward to it, here is the next instalment of Between the Lines.**

**The request today comes in from Darkness1st who asked:**

Listen, I love your stories. Both this and ACUL0 and if you wouldn't mind it, may I suggest a chapter you could write?

Anyways, if you could write a chapter about Misaka Mikoto and Misaki Shokuhou making something like a competition where the prize is Touma (I don't know how they'll compete but I'd leave it up to you to make it hilarious). By the way, if you could add a plot twist at the very end where the two girls (or the winner) will talk to Touma, another person will take him away at the end. I don't know, it seemed interesting in my head and if you could write it out, that would be amazing since you're one of the best authors I know in .

Oh! And if I could suggest another thing you could write is what if Touma and Hamazura switch roles where Hamazura will have to go to Touma's school and create a hilarious bunch of antics with Touma's classmates. While all of that is happening, Touma will have the misfortune to hang out with ITEM. And imagine one or two of the girls actually developing a thing for Touma. Haha, that would be spectacular.

I'm not forcing you or anything but it would be so cool if you could take these suggestions and even if you don't, it won't stop me from reading all the upcoming chapters.

**It's going to be the latter idea that is the focus mainly because my Rumour story focuses a bit on the former as of now. So I hope that you enjoy this story and looking at it, it's pretty obvious how it is a two-shot.**

**And here is the Q &amp; A:**

**whwsms: Thanks for the kind words! The Rumour has a slow pace for a reason but I hope that you have come to enjoy where it has headed so far and look forward to future updates with that in regards. I only hope that when the City is over and done with that there is a City left in the first place. And Yuiitsu thought that she had done damage with the Elements…..**

**Guest X: As you have probably realised with my stories, any question that you can probably pick out as being stranger is probably deliberately so and thus has an answer. Keep those questions in mind though and I hope that when the series reaches its resolution that you can believe what the end answer will be and be convinced from it.**

**seiker: I want to write a Lessar chapter for the Rumour simply because while all of the characters that are mentioned are going after Touma, Lessar's thought processes would be simple as with no overwhelming emotion s behind them. It would serve as a brilliant contrast consequently so I look forward to penning it down. And it's all for bloo – love. And yes, Touma wouldn't be THAT stupid if only for the fact that it places those that he loves at risk too. And Touma's location won't be disclosed for a while, mainly because by that point, all of the girls would have been mentioned and thus swarm him from all directions. And I'm also glad that you liked that 'reliance' that Birdway places on Touma. For all intents and purposes, she is still 12 and thus I felt that delving into that humanism was what was needed to express her emotions correctly. But I won't be looking only at that, mainly because I want to cover other people and their suggestions as well. W-Waiting for the chapters has its own charm as well right?! And yeah, I noticed the problems that you had with the reviews. Guest reviews take longer to upload on the page so you don't need to write them again after you made it; it just takes longer to upload than if you had an actual account. I don't mind the spam though.**

**Red Glasses: No, each heroine will only get one chapter like has been done previously. I introduced three 'rivals' last chapter but only one of them will be the focus in the next before I address the other two later on. And of course Birdway would flatter herself! W-Well a chapter on Suzushina Yuriko MAY be in the works… 4 years sounds like a good estimate though unfortunately…. Well I mean I had Mikoto first so who the 'final heroine' will be doesn't really matter as the final chapter will be focused on Touma. Kanzaki though is perfect for a final chapter girl but we'll have to see…..**

**pop2ww: Hmm… I have no idea if this would happen in the canon as a side story. I mean, Index isn't a harem series, it's more of an action series with a harem ELEMENT. The harem elements in Kamachi series are always downplayed and usually there for laughs but I think Kamachi has in mind some aspect of a true 'one' heroine at the end of the day. So looking at that, I don't think that this would happen in the canon as a side story unless it was non-canon. I've always wanted to delve into the individuality of the characters in this way and I felt that just having 'girls' enter the stage without really getting into their heads would feel a bit lazy on my part. I could definitely though pour all of the characters into the next chapter but I feel that looking individually into each character and then progressing their journey onwards like this is better for a development and insight on their part and the like. Hence the Birdway focus, which I am glad that you liked. If none of them held back, there would be no City. It would just be a large crater in the ground, visible from space. I just finished the Index chapter and I really enjoyed it overall. Well if Touma's parents were holding an omiai, I feel that something similar would happen but more on an emotional basis instead of outright war like in here. The girls would 'battle' to reveal their better sides but there would be little fighting. As for the status quo, it's hard to say who will break it. I think Touma would be the one to do so simply because of how his own position within the scope of things makes him in charge of his own life where he takes action based on it. For that reason alone, I'm partial to think that if the status quo changed, it's going to be Touma that changes it rather than a heroine, but then again, having a sudden confession in the heat of the moment works too I guess!**

**Endo Hanshiro (I finally reached him?!): Endo's character definitely looks something along the lines of Makoto Naegi from Danganronpa. The normalcy that Endo gives off was something that I wanted to at least portray in this which makes his nature as a twisted hero that much harder to see. It wasn't that I wanted to make him look special or anything, I wanted him to be that member of Judgment that has a sense of justice that is removed but acceptable from Judgment values but otherwise looks like he would never become a Judgment member if he hadn't enrolled. Thus, the figure and stance of Makoto is perhaps the best fit although think of him wearing more street-like clothes and having a sterner face to fit with the image of Endo.**

**Nemoto Toshiko: Definitely the character that most matches Nemoto would have been Lita Kino (Sailor Jupiter) from the Sailor Moon series except perhaps more leaning towards the side of someone that fits the profile of a delinquent with a piercing in her ear and more revealing clothes along with a cigarette. Nemoto was more of a mirror to Shirai if anything when it comes to their values and personalities so I felt that making her a delinquent suited the type of justice that Shirai tends to personify when it comes to her own work. Consequently, I made Nemoto work and look in direct contrast to how Shirai does in terms of clothing, attitude, use of power and the like so for that alone, she sort of acts as an anti-Kuroko and thus her design has been made to reflect that. Disregarding Lita's original character and how she works for good, Nemoto was strictly speaking someone that was the 'black' to counter Kuroko's 'white' which is ironic given the naming scheme.**

**AleisterCrowley: If anything, I think the conclusion where Touma is not the slacker she thinks he is the end result of doing a Fukiyose and Touma fiction but at the same time I want to avoid looking at something that is entirely romance based. After all, if I did that it would be a majority of romance focused chapters while there are other themes that I think I can cover but in the end, I only hope that whatever direction I take it in that you enjoy it and aren't too disappointed. Overall, the chapter is definitely planned.**

**Firstly though, before we begin, I would like to thank the usual three people.**

**The first is my beta reader PokeRescue18, for his hard work on this project. Without him, not only would I not update as much but the updates would be littered with mistakes. So thanks so much man.**

**The next person I would like to thank is you, the reader. After all, it is together that we have reached this stage and without you, this would not be happening as much.**

**And the final person I would like to thank is Darkness1st. After all, this is their idea and I hope that it is something that you enjoy to your fullest.**

**Like CONS and PROS, this will have this note here before concluding as a whole in the next part so there won't really be an end note this part nor a beginning note for the next but rather a 'concluding' end note next chapter.**

**And from me, I hope that you do what you always do with this two-shot.**

**Enjoy.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

Chaos within Normalcy. _Life_Escape_-_Hamazura_Shiage._

It had been nothing more than a suggestion that he had made however now that it was in play, Hamazura Shiage truly felt sorry for the other person that had participated in his little suggestion that he had not been taking seriously when he had made it.

Today, there was something different about Hamazura and looking at where he was and the people he was hanging around, it was obvious what it was.

Because today, Hamazura Shiage was Kamijou Touma.

It wasn't something as ridiculous as a body swap arc or their minds transferring to each other or Imagine Breaker transferring over to Hamazura. There was nothing like that but for all intents and purposes if you were nothing but an outsider and looking at the situation at hand right now, you would say that Hamazura Shiage was 'Kamijou Touma'.

If only for the simple fact that that former delinquent was sitting at Kamijou Touma's desk within A Certain High School, had answered his name when it had been called out on the roll and was hanging out with his friends as if everything was normal and there was nothing strange about it in the slightest.

The idea and the cause of this entire mess had, as stated, come from Hamazura himself.

He and Kamijou had been on good terms ever since he had returned from World War 3 and the two of them had struck up on odd friendship despite their first meeting being where Kamijou had punched him in the face. While that had set him down a dark path that had eventually ended up with the true happiness and peace he had now, the two of them were on rather friendly terms despite what had happened.

It was almost as if there was something magnetic that drew people closer to Kamijou. It was partially because of his forgiveness for what people did and while that made people somewhat awkward after having put him through hell or sent him to the hospital, it was somewhat refreshing that they had a former enemy turned into an ally that would accept them despite their dark past.

Hamazura, when first faced with it had been unable to understand why the boy would accept him despite only meeting him once and letting him into his home however the charisma and aura that the boy gave was magnetic that before Hamazura knew it, he had been pulled in and was a part of the life that was Kamijou Touma.

He knew it was the same for Accelerator despite what the boy might say in argument but the point of the fact was that Hamazura Shiage and Kamijou Touma were joined in friendship as if they had been childhood friends from Day One.

Of course, while that in turn made Hamazura happy that he could rely on Kamijou despite their differences such as what had happened on December 1st with the St. Germain Incident, the connection that the two of them had meant that it was usually Kamijou that ended up having to bear the negatives of things that happened between them 'because they were friends'.

Things such as Hamazura hiding his stolen porn collections and bunny pictures in Kamijou's apartment only to have them found by the nun that freeloaded with him.

Things such as items that Hamazura had given to Kamijou as gifts which he had originally gotten from his Skill-Out days only to learn that they had been stolen in the first place and Kamijou arrested for having the damning evidence on him.

Things such as babysitting Fremea Seivelun when the other members of ITEM were busy and when Hamazura had a date with his girlfriend Takitsubo Rikou planned.

Hamazura knew that the last point was something that Accelerator had do for him when he was too tired to deal with the girl known as Last Order (something that Hamazura did not know much about) so it meant that Kamijou was used to babysitting this Last Order girl on occasion meaning that Hamazura had felt it no problem to entrust Fremea to Kamijou at all.

After all, they seemed friendly with each other and the girl seemed rather amused at the things that happened with Kamijou as well so there was no harm in it right?

It had been yesterday that Hamazura had left Kamijou to babysit once more, only to return after his date with Takitsubo to find that Kamijou and Fremea had somehow managed to get stuck in the elevator of the boy's dorm for 6 hours. When they had finally been released, what looked like a slap mark on Kamijou's cheek and urine in the corner of the elevator itself filled Hamazura's vision as he had seemed surprised at the sight.

Both Kamijou and Fremea seemed rather traumatised and didn't want to talk about it but they still bid each other farewell in a friendly way despite it all. It seemed as though they had fun although how one could have fun stuck in an elevator for 6 hours was beyond Hamazura.

It had been then that the idea had been raised and Hamazura remembered the conversation as if it had happened yesterday. Oh wait, it had.

That thought process showed just how much Hamazura paid attention to things but the conversation had gone something like this:

_"Thanks Boss for all of this. Sorry once again for the trouble. I seriously owe you one again." Hamazura had said when the two boys had left the area with the bad smelling elevator._

_"It's fine," Kamijou responded although his face looked rather pale and worse for wear. "Anytime. If you need someone to look after Fremea, just give me a call. A-At least this time there was no expense involved so I should be happy…. But those 6 hours… Such misfortune."_

_Kamijou said those words with a dark aura around him as he started chuckling deeply as Hamazura looked at his friend in a concerned way. Was…he alright? He definitely seemed stressed but for the most part it seemed as though it was nothing serious._

_"Boss, I seriously think you need a break." Hamazura said simply as Kamijou snapped out of it, waving his hand in front of his face to reject the comment._

_"No, I have school tomorrow. Well actually tomorrow's going to be nothing special because we're doing gym practically all day but I at least have to go to get my attendance filled!"_

_"Gym? All day tomorrow? How does that work?"_

_"I have no idea. Apparently, something to do with the balance and maintenance of adrenaline or whatever during extended sport. Our school is participating in some study related to the secretion of adrenaline during physical activity so our class among others got selected for whole gym-focused classes tomorrow." Kamijou confessed as Hamazura raised an eyebrow._

_"Do you even need to go tomorrow then?"_

_"Yes! Yes, I do! My attendance is like the Titanic on the trip to that iceberg! If I miss one, even one more lesson, it's going to end up worse than me just sinking to the ocean floor! I'll probably still be alive and then have to swim all the way up to the surface with all the water pressure surrounding me! That's what it's going to be like Hamazura! Do you hear me?!"_

_"Y-Yes I do! P-Please stop shaking meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Hamazura had let out that shout as Kamijou realised that he had grabbed his friend's shirt and started shaking the boy rather frantically without realising it. He let go and Hamazura looked in pity at the boy as he placed a hand on his shoulder._

_"I feel for you there Boss. As a former member of Skill-Out I don't understand. But I feel for you. You should get out some more. Get a girlfriend or something."_

_"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! The one with a girlfriend just casually suggested that to make me feel better but it had the opposite effect! You're so far away Hamazura even though you're so close! I want to cry right now! I want to cry and it's all your fault you damn normal!"_

_Kamijou looked at the verge of bursting into tears at that remark as Hamazura looked rather stunned at the reaction he had gotten. It was either the boy didn't realise the female interest he had gotten or he simply had too much on his plate to consider it. The fact that he had to deal with things such as school, magic, science, babysitting and his usual misfortune truly made the boy feel bad for Kamijou. It was like he was the universe's punching bag; whenever it got stressed or out of balance, it would take it out on Kamijou Touma to make things right._

_Hamazura wondered if there was some kind of butterfly effect, like whenever Kamijou experienced misfortune somewhere in the world had fortune to counterbalance but he felt like suggesting it would only make the boy burst into tears._

_So he asked a question._

_"How much do you want to relax there Boss? Do you just want to put up your feet for the day? Do you just want a rest tomorrow?"_

_"…Thanks for the offer man, but I seriously have school. I can't afford missing out on any lessons."_

_"Then I'll go in your place."_

_"….Huh?"_

_"I'll call out your name on the roll or whatever and make it seem like you're there for attendance. In turn though, I think that my friends can help you relax despite all of your stress. What do you say Boss? Why not take a chance and let yourself get the well-earned rest you deserve? I'm pretty sure that my friends can show you a good time and be pretty accommodating to relieve stress. You've never asked for money for taking care of Fremea so I kind of owe you more now. Let me make it up to you."_

_"H-Hang on there, Hamazura. Back up a few steps. What are you saying?"_

_Hamazura though only sighed, patted Kamijou on the back and grinned._

_"I'm saying I'll take your place in school tomorrow. And you can take mine and hang out with my friends who can show you a good time around the City. What do ya say?"_

There had been much resistance on the part of Kamijou but for the most part, Hamazura had finally convinced him (more threatened him by saying that he'll have Fremea insist he had assaulted her inside the elevator which was ridiculous because he was threatening Kamijou to have fun) and had taken his place inside A Certain High School.

Personally, he felt it was ridiculous. In his delinquent days, he would have revelled in the chance to skip out on school. He was still doing it and hanging out with everyone else which showed just how much he cared about the education system. No matter where it was, whether it be outside Academy City or inside, he still could never get his head into a 'learning mode' where he really wanted to learn.

It was probably because Kamijou had said that he was having nothing but gym for the entire day that he had even suggested the 'swap' in the first place but as Hamazura placed his head on the desk, he fully realised the consequences of his actions.

For the most part, he remembered exactly why he hated coming to school in the first place although the amount of respect that he had for Kamijou for _voluntarily _wanting to come here was something amazing in and of itself. Mind you though, if he didn't have that attendance issue, would he still come?

Hamazura put that thought to the side, only shaking his head as he recalled exactly what had happened in the events that had led up to lunch, which it was currently now.

He had walked into the school without a care, the only thing different about him being that he was wearing the winter school uniform of A Certain High School under his usual hoodie. The fact that he zipped up the clothes he was always wearing though gave the impression that he was just a delinquent student and in actuality, that impression was not far removed from the truth.

Although when you looked at it, the fact that Kamijou was skipping out on school as well only told wonders about that particular student.

The day had started with problems from the get go. The class had immediately been suspicious as Hamazura had been the one to walk in and announce that because of 'circumstances', Kamijou had asked him to take his place in class. That had immediately gotten some 'boos' from the girls, something that had done a number on Hamazura's confidence.

One of the girls (with that chest…that chest! That chest!) had frowned in displeasure at him however had muttered something about 'the usual Kamijou' suggesting that Hamazura here was not the problem. He had managed to sit down and answer the boy's name in roll call and it was not until the class had left for gym that Hamazura had almost been caught.

Namely by one Yomikawa Aiho.

He had been surprised by the presence of the Anti-Skill officer in Kamijou's school however it seemed as though she was co-ordinating with the people that were in charge of the study in the first place so beyond telling the class what to do, she never actually got a good look at him. Such a thing had almost scared Hamazura out of his wits however beyond that minor setback, nothing major had happened.

It was lunch now and the sheer exhaustion of all the running and other gym related activities that Hamazura had been made to do have left a rather deep sweat on him. He was currently wearing the gym clothes of the High School right now and simply sitting down and relaxing made him want to fall asleep.

If Hamazura had the chance to do so, he was sure that he would immediately drift off however a voice pulled his head off the desk as he gazed lazily at the person that was looking and talking to him.

"Huh? What d'you say?" Hamazura asked without a particular care as the other boy merely wagged a finger.

"Hah. Honestly Hamazura, you have a long way to go if you think you can take Kami-yan's place like this!"

"…I have no intention of ever going back to school again so that's fine with me." Hamazura replied as he lifted his head off the desk fully and reluctantly turned to the boy that was speaking to him.

Of the people and lives that Kamijou Touma had managed to get involved in, Hamazura knew that he wasn't the only one. The Level 0's connection with Accelerator and the force he had gathered in Hawaii and the Fräulein Kreutune incident demonstrated that so it was no surprise that the boy knew people outside of the usual circle Hamazura felt he had a place in. Still, the people at A Certain High School were definitely the more…unique among them.

"Still, in all honesty, you must seriously owe Kami-yan one if you decided to go to school in his place." Another, sitting in front of Hamazura made that note as the boy nodded in response.

"Something like that. Ask the Bo – ask Kamijou about it." Hamazura said that comment without any commitment as the fatigue of both the physical exercise and the mental exhaustion of once more being in a school environment hit him at the same time. He waved it off though as he placed an elbow on Kamijou's desk and his leaned his cheek against his fist as he stared at the two boys.

"So, what do you guys want?" Hamazura asked Kamijou's friends who in his opinion were perhaps as strange as Kamijou in some ways. Mind you though, part of him felt as though he was the same as them even though he kept…those kind of thoughts to himself in public places.

These two however, had no such intentions.

"What do we want?! Isn't it obvious!? We're talking about the Golden Ratio!"

"…The what?"

"The Golden Ratio nyah~! Didn't Kami-yan explain that this conversation was saved just for today!?"

(He probably forgot about it because of how stupid it is! What in the world were you discussing Boss?!)

Hamazura had that internal thought as he stared at the two boys without an inch of comprehension on his face. Maybe it was because he was tired or maybe it was because of the ridiculousness of what they were talking about (the latter, it was probably the latter) but all Hamazura did was blink in response.

The two boys though merely sighed.

The one that was standing in front of Hamazura now was apparently the class representative. Sporting blue hair and ear piercings, Aogami Pierce was definitely someone that Hamazura knew to be one of those 2D obsessed people that hung around arcades and the anime merchandise stores in order to be the ones in the 'know' about 'moe'.

On the other hand, the one that was sitting in front of Hamazura (not at his own desk though) had spiky blond hair with sunglasses covering his eyes although Hamazura could tell that there was a mischievous glare beneath them. Tsuchimikado Motoharu sat leaning against the chair as Hamazura sighed, taking the energy to speak up to the other boys who were also in their gym uniforms.

"So, what exactly is this Golden Ratio?"

"The ratio between the length of the bloomers and the amount of bare skin that they show!" Aogami gave that comment as Hamazura felt his world explode, the small bits of debris floating through space, never to find another centre of gravity to pull them in close and maintain a semblance of what used to be his world.

"What?"

Hamazura could only give that response as he blinked while Tsuchimikado shook his head and shrugged.

"Have you even been paying attention to what today represents Hamazura?! Do you not see what is around you at this very moment nyah~!?"

Hamazura opened his mouth, trying to say something however a pulling at the back of his mind made him realise something very basic. He gulped, turning his head to face the others in the classroom as sweat poured down his back. His hands were shaking and his breathing was getting laboured but even then, he realised something in this classroom that was not his.

The girls…all of them were wearing bloomers.

They were more shorts in truth, something that was probably put into place to prevent the high school boys from ogling the thighs of the girls however the fact that the entire class had been made to do endless exercise with little breaks to analyse some kind of secretion of whatever chemical it was, the girls had decided that having more air flowing to their legs was something beneficial when everyone was sweating hard.

No one remembered who suggested it in the first place (wasn't it that girl that would look good in a shrine maiden outfit that had suggested it?) but the fact was that the boys and the girls had folded the material of their gym shorts over like a paper fan to allow for more air to flow to their legs as they did the needed exercise.

As a result, the gym shorts that had been rather plain had turned into something entirely different. With the folded material revealing more skin that would surely send the minds of the boys into overdrive, the sweat that covered those legs seemed to give off a soft scent as well.

Had it not been pointed out to Hamazura, his tired mind would have dismissed the idea entirely and not thought anything of it. However, whether he liked it or not, the reality of the situation was pointed out to him in full force.

Just centimetres away, sitting at desks that were in the same classroom were the sight of numerous girls that were trying to catch their breath with their exposed thighs filling his eyesight. Sure, he only had eyes for Takitsubo Rikou his girlfriend but even so….even so!

Hamazura Shiage's eyes went wide as he felt his mind work to process the sight in front of him. No….it wasn't just the sight of the thighs of the girls that was drawing him in, despite what Aogami and Tsuchimikado had told him.

The sweat….it was the sweat! The liquid that was secreted naturally by the body had managed to outline the shapes of the girls in an erotic way, something that was only supported by the fact that no one was taking any care in covering themselves up; they were simply too exhausted to do any of that.

Still the sweat that covered their bodies did so in a way that made their clothes stick to their skin. It was a cliché and something that happened in everyday life, but even so, the fact that it almost made the shirts themselves see through was nothing more than a blessing. As Hamazura was sitting near the back, he was unable to see the front of the shirts however he felt as though the paradise that was awaiting him from the front would only send his mind into a state that he would not be able to recover from.

Seeing the girls' bra straps from behind was one thing…. but seeing them from the front!

Hamazura felt his breathing get more laboured as his mind's eye tried to observe the scene in front of him, before he clenched a fist and slammed it down on the table (that was not his). He trembled slightly in response before he let out a voice that seemed as though it was on the verge of crying.

"I….I didn't notice! Shit! How…how foolish could I have been!?"

"It's OK. It's OK." Aogami let out a soothing voice while patting the boy on the back in a comforting way while Tsuchimikado leaned in close so that the boys could speak in soft tones.

"Well…now that you have seen the light Hamazura, the question remains. What is the Golden Ratio nyah~?!"

"Again, remind me what in the world that was again?! My…my eyes keep on diverting to that scene in front of me! Damn it….where is the one with the chest?! Where is she?" Hamazura started to look around for the girl with the massive chest in the hopes of ogling from a distance her feminine form that would surely have the same sweat causing her clothes to stick to her skin.

Aogami though took up the slack and instantly waved a finger in the air.

"Honestly Hamazura, need we remind you again? The Golden Ratio! The ratio between a girl's bloomers and the amount of skin that they show!" Aogami basically declared that to the world with a confident shout as a number of the girls instantly jerked while they were resting their heads on their desks and glared at the trio of boys. They especially did so to Hamazura who was, in their eyes, nothing but a stranger as they all moved their hands to their shorts in order to pull down the material.

However, they never got to completing the action. The heat and the fact that the day's exercise was not over yet meant that they would have to readjust the gym shorts to a bloomer shape once more and their exhaustion and fatigue meant that they were unwilling to do even that. With hateful glares being their only weapons, they sent them back to the boys before resting their heads on the table once more although with their legs pointed away from the trio.

Hamazura felt as though his eyes were on the verge of tears as he glared at Aogami.

"You idiot!" He hissed. "What the hell are you shouting!?"

"Hahahaha! It doesn't make a difference at this point Hamazura, what I say. The rest of the day means that there is plenty of opportunities to view the sight of that bare skin reflecting the sunlight and the drops of sweat sparkling against the skin of those legs! So, there is nothing to worry about!" declared Aogami confidently as Hamazura merely felt more pissed at the fact that he could no longer surreptitiously view those legs in his own time.

"So? What does this Golden Ratio have to do with anything?" he asked as he tried to sneak his eyes around Aogami who was standing in his line of vision now.

"Tsk, tsk. Hamazura, unlike Kami-yan you lack finesse. You lack the sort of subtlety that comes with these topics." Tsuchimikado spoke now, drawing away Hamazura's attention to him.

Hamazura frowned as he looked at the sunglasses boy that had spoken. While it was true that there was a sort of sensitivity with this sort of topic when discussing it around girls, he hadn't thought that Kamijou himself would take care when discussing them. Again, Hamazura was reminded of the gap between him and the Boss and it only seemed to widen at Tsuchimiado's statement.

But with the next few words, it seemed as though the impression that Hamazura had of Kamijou Touma had definitely lost a lot of points.

"After all! If you're going to marvel at the 3 dimensional structure that is the female body, you may as well be open about it! So, Hamazura! Tell me what you think the Golden Ratio is!"

"Being open about it has nothing to do with finesse or sensitivity whatsoever!"

Tsuchimikado said his words in a confident tone with a light shining behind his glasses that clearly showed that he was serious yet Hamazura could only cover his face with his hands at the fact that it was basically confirming that the Boss took part in these types of conversations on a daily basis.

Mind you though, with both Accelerator and Hamazura Shiage finding close company with girls that they had met, the fact that Kamijou had struck up a friendship with these two guys was probably something that had to be admired.

Even if it was one of the strangest friendships that Hamazura had come across.

"T-the Golden Ratio you say?" asked Hamazura as he sneakily tried to have a good look at one of the girls' thighs that was sitting in front of him. He saw that some of the other boys were trying to do the same however the movement of the girls in protecting their thighs from their gazes was rather successful, much to the boys' disappointment.

"Yes! The Golden Ratio! The Ratio of the length of the bloomer to the amount of bare skin it shows! Do you not agree that bloomers should only hide 5% of the entire leg?" Aogami yelled into the air with a pumped fist before putting his own leg up onto the table and stroking it.

The horrors of interpretation made the action seem like it was repulsive but if it was a girl doing it, Hamazura was sure that he was going to get a nosebleed. ESPECIALLY if it was Takitsubo. Oh no…. Hamazura could feel something run down his nose as he snivelled while Aogami indicated with his own leg his point.

"As you can see, the length of the bloomer rises up the thigh. It should do so in a way that only covers 5% of the leg, however manages to strike a perfect balance with the thigh and reveal no more than 75% of the thigh itself. Hence the balance of the thigh: leg and thus skin shown should be 75: 95! The bloomers should cover only 25% of the thigh and 5% of the entire leg! Do you not agree that this is the perfect ratio to not only maintain a safe rating that doesn't go into pure hentai yet at the same time allows one to fully grasp the truth and the purity of the thighs of girls?!"

Aogami released that shout into the air as the girls in the room twitched and Hamazura could see that some of them had turned their gazes down to the bloomers (in reality modified gym shorts) that they were wearing in order to try and assess what Aogami was saying.

Hamazura's mouth flapped open and shut as he tried to form words however his own mental image of Takitsubo Rikou having the same ratio of 75: 95 caused his own weak-willed heart to start pounding. He gulped as the mental Takitsubo squirmed as she tried to cover her thighs and leg but were unable to fully do so.

He felt once more something running down his nose and he took another deep sniff to prevent whatever was running down his nose from leaking out. He had to keep whatever was threatening to run down in there for fear of what would happen to him if he accidentally let it out. He had no idea but he could tell that having a nosebleed in this room, here and now was hardly going to be a good idea.

It seemed though that Tsuchimikado in front of Hamazura had a frown on his face.

"75: 95? Are you serious Aogami Pierce? Do you really think that only showing 75% of the thigh is an acceptable ratio? Don't be ridiculous!"

"What? Do you have a different idea of what the Golden Ratio is!?" blurted Aogami as Tsuchimikado merely shook his head. With a fluid motion, he reached for the edges of his sunglasses and pushed the frame up against his face, the sunlight from outside catching on it and making the lens gleam.

"You're a fool Aogami Pierce. Of course, the Golden Ratio is 75: 80 nyah~!"

"Y-You want less of the leg to be showwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn?!"

Hamazura was the one that let out that short of surprise, only for the girls in the room to jump at that as they pretended that they weren't listening. A deathly silence came over the classroom as Tsuchimikado started to chuckle with a dark tone held beneath his voice while nodding his head.

"Of course! You forget something Hamazura and Aogami Pierce! Namely the fact that the leg extends far past the thigh and calf! Depending on who you ask, it can stop at the foot or the ankle so this sort of thing is an important distinction. We're not talking about the perfect Ratio of showing bare skin; we're discussing the Ratio of the bloomer covering the leg and how much bare skin is shown as a result! 75% of the thigh is perfect; there is no doubt about that. But 95% of the leg? Did you inject your brain with something other than the needed drugs Aogami Pierce!?" Tsuchimikado put his own leg on the desk and did the same thing as Aogami, stroking his finger up it.

Again, the horrors of interpretation meant that a filthy and sweaty guy's leg was being caressed on Kamijou's desk however Hamazura was sure that if it was a girl, then there would have been no problems. Some of the sweat dripped onto the desk and was surely going to stay there.

In a way, Hamazura felt bad for what was happening to Kamijou's desk while he was absent however his weak-willed heart felt as though this was a conversation that he could not ignore for the life of him. He had to see this through to the end!

Tsuchimikado though continued, expertly speaking as if he were a connoisseur evaluating a specific brand.

"75: 80 is the Golden Ratio! This isn't a swimsuit discussion; we had that last week and have the bruises to show for it. Bloomers are not supposed to reveal a majority of the leg as a result! Covering 75% of the thigh, I agree. But 95% of the leg!? Doing so means that socks are going to be covering a minimal area and if you look at where the leg starts and stops, that could mean that you can either be covering the ankle slightly or covering it entirely! No, 80% of the leg needs to be shown, not 95!"

"I…see…" Hamazura put a hand underneath his chin as he assessed what Tsuchimikado was saying. Aogami looked at him in surprise however the Level 0 took no notice as he analysed what Tsuchimikado was saying.

"By having 80% of the leg covered, you avoid the entire issue of whether or not you can or can't see the ankle. With the leg, you just want to skin and revealing the bone itself is something of a turn off. We like the meat, not the bone so it makes sense that we have enough lee-way to cover the ankle at the very least. 95% might cut it but making it 80 brings it to a certainty. Meaning that the only visible skin is that of the thigh before going down to the knee, revealing part of the calf and the shin as well. With the 95%, you can reveal most of the shin but leaves the possibility of the ankle being shown too. The ankle thusly cannot fit into the Ratio and cannot be shown."

Hamazura muttered to himself however the truth of the words he felt he was saying seemed rather blinding to him. Although he was whispering, it somehow seemed as though the girls in the class were hanging on every word as they looked down at their own clothes now, truly wondering whether showing too much skin was essentially a good thing given the Ratio.

"See?" Tsuchimikado though took Hamazura's muttering to mean that he agreed with him completely as he thrust a finger into Aogami's face. "75: 95? Are you retarded?! Think about the implications of what you are suggesting! Do you really want the ankle being shown?"

"Is this really about the ankle? Sure, revealing 95% of the leg gives the possibility of that but by no means is it a certainty! Tsuchimikado, are you suggesting that you prefer to give up some of the skin just so you could view the bone? Are you the type of guy that likes a one-piece swimsuit because you think the navel is a turn off!?"

"WE HAD THIS DISCUSSION LAST WEEK NYAH~! A-And no! Don't stray off topic Aogami Pierce! I'm talking about the leg and the stomach is an entirely different area altogether."

"Fine, if you think about it maybe creatures with two legs are something that you don't want to reveal 95% of the leg for to avoid the ankle being shown or maybe a majority of the shin. But what about ghost girls? You know the ones with the transparent feet? What about them? AND MERMAIDS! You can't forget about them! Do you really think when faced with those types of genres, you'll be satisfied with 75: 80? The Ratio I put forward, while ending in a bit of disappointment if the ankle is viewed, depending on where you see the leg starting and stopping, serves to encompass all genres!"

"All genres?! Firstly, would ghost girls even need to wear bloomers? I thought they were the ones that always wore a loose fitting kimono that they think is too big for them however can't adjust it meaning that it gives rise to multiple 'lucky pervert' situations that they can't get mad about because it's their clothes! And mermaids don't even have legs you idiot! They wouldn't have the capacity for bloomers in the first place!"

"B-But for a ghost girl in bloomers you would want the 75: 95 ratio right?! And who cares about mermaids not being able to wear them! You'd still want to see the length of the tail revealing 95% of the entire leg wouldn't you?"

"K-Kh. I can't deny that ghost girl point however, are you seriously thinking that the slimy tail of a mermaid is something that you are fine with viewing? But in all seriousness, it's the 75: 80 Ratio that perfectly grasps the majesty of the female leg!"

"What about maid outfits then? Does that mean in your book they are imperfect as they show practically none of the leg?"

"WE'RE TALKING ABOUT BLOOMERS HERE! Maid outfits and the structural nature of them was saved for tomorrooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!"

Tsuchimikado wasted no time leaping for Aogami as he tackled the boy to the floor as they wrestled and attacked each other with an aspect of seriousness. Hamazura went wide eyed at the sight however turned to see that the rest of the class were either sighing as if they saw this type of thing every day or were looking at their own bloomers and changing the length of their socks so that either 80% or 95% of the leg was shown.

That said a lot about the class in particular however there was a more important point to deal with right now in the eyes of Hamazura Shiage.

What was the Golden Ratio?

75: 95?

Or 75: 80?

When it came to bloomers, it seemed as though revealing 75% of the thigh was standard. So the question became how much skin of the leg needed to be shown? 80%? Or 95%? The latter gave the chance of revealing the ankle but while Hamazura had said he preferred the meat of a woman's leg, there was nothing wrong with the ankles either. It all went down to personal taste however when viewed objectively, this sort of thing had to branch beyond just high school girls.

For woman, for maids, for lolis, for slime girls, for ghost girls, for androids, for teachers, for corporate officer workers, for those that wore garter belts, for those that had twintails, etc. In the end, if all of those genres suddenly decided to wear bloomers how much of the leg would one want to see?

No….that wasn't the issue here.

This was a Golden Ratio!

What was it that Hamazura wanted to see? If Takitsubo Rikou were to suddenly decide to wear bloomers, how much of her leg would he want to see? How much of the thigh?

Hamazura rose his head in realisation as the perfect solution struck him like a lightning bolt. Sweat ran down his face as he clenched his fists and felt his heart pound uncontrollably. Yes. Yes! The Ratio that filled his mind was surely the perfect solution.

Hamazura had no interest in the past however right here and now, he felt as though he was Leonardo da Vinci when he had finally managed to draw The Vitruvian Man and discover the proportions that consisted of the human body. Yes, this proportion of thigh to leg when wearing bloomers was surely the finest resolution that was ever to hit the minds of man.

In truth, Hamazura hated how foolish he was; unable to see the light of the issue from the very start.

What he wanted to see…

If Takitsubo were wearing bloomers, he would want to see…!

"…You're both wrong."

Those words echoed into the air as two of the members of the Delta Force stopped their fighting, Tsuchimikado in a headlock and Aogami having his eyes almost poked into (wherever they were) as they turned to face Hamazura. Surprise covered their faces as Hamazura clenched his fists tighter so that his knuckles turned white.

"That's right. You're both wrong. Golden Ratio? Don't make me laugh. You were wrong from the outset!"

Hamazura suddenly stood up and knocked both the chair and the table he was sitting at down (even though they weren't his) as he swung out an arm to the side. A look of glee was on his face and a pure happiness of a man enlightened was in his expression.

"75: 95? 75: 80? That only assumes one basic thing. And that's that we want to be limited to those types of numbers with bloomers!"

Hamazura shouted and let out a roar, tears streaming down his face as he spoke his mind and let loose his pent up emotions. What was it that he wanted to see from Takitsubo if she were to wear bloomers? Would he be happy limited to just those numbers? Wasn't there something else he wanted to view altogether?

The only one there with a girlfriend yelled out his answer.

"The Golden Ratio is 100: 100!"

Light seemed to radiate from Hamazura's body as he let out that shout, standing on the edge of the knocked over desk and pulling up his shorts to reveal more of his thigh as sweat and tears dripped down onto the desk.

Again, the horrors of interpretation meant that an adolescent high schooler was revealing some of his leg that no one wanted to see while dripping bodily fluids onto the desk of a particularly unlucky student. If it was a girl though, there would surely be no problem but again, Hamazura seemed not to care as he spoke.

"You idiots thought that 75% of the thigh for bloomers was ideal! But you're wrong. Of course you are! Are you fine being limited to just 75%? You want to go for the full number! Who cares about boundaries?! When it comes to bloomers, I want to see the full 100% of my Takitsubo-chan's thigh! No more or less! And the same goes for her perfect legs! 80? 95? Who gives a shit?! Give it all to me! Give it allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!"

Aogami and Tsuchimikado went open mouthed at the rare statement that Hamazura was giving as everyone in the class turned to look at the boy that had (not directly) turned out to be quite the pervert himself. Hamazura though was not done talking as he clenched his fists tighter and roared into the sky.

"I want it all! Thighs, legs, I want it all! I don't want to be limited to just percentages! 100% is the only percent for me! Bloomers should be as short as possible and the shoes and socks taken off, just for the sole purpose of revealing that Golden Ratio! I want it all! I want it allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll! Shit, I won't lie to myself anymore! I want it all!"

Hamazura broke down into tears as he collapsed to the floor, everyone looking at each other, unable to speak or react. Once again, it seemed as though Kamijou had managed to make another strange friend however this one seemed rather in tune with his own weak heart.

And it seemed as though the other members of the Delta Force were just as sympathetic to the boy's plight as they walked over the boy and placed their hands on Hamazura's shoulders.

"It's alright man," said Aogami in a comforting voice. "Just let it all out."

"It must have been quite the shock. Being so open about the Golden Ratio. But you have truly transcended the realm of being holed up in your desires. May you walk the path of many genres Hamazura." Tsuchimikado said in a rather wise sounding voice however most of the people there had no idea what they were talking about.

It was rather reminiscent of the very first 'open' discussion that the trio of Kamijou Touma, Aogami Pierce and Tsuchimikado Motoharu had had in their class, all those months ago about their tastes. Although it seemed as though Hamazura was slowly adjusting and overwhelmed by the fact that the Golden Ratio was something that was so obvious yet so far, the other boys in the class silently nodded as they too realised the truth of the matter.

In the end, the entire thigh and leg was what was wanted! No one wanted to be half assed and leave things half done. It wasn't about how much was hidden. You may as well just have gotten the entire thing over and done with and revealed the entire thigh and leg!

This was the way that things were supposed to be; the true Golden Ratio that needed to be followed when one wore bloomers in revealing their thighs and the amount of needed coverage of the leg itself.

There were to be no protection; no shoes or socks.

Only the thigh, the leg and the perfection of the 100: 100 Golden Ratio.

The girls though only deadpanned without a change in expression as they placed their heads back on the desk, wondering where in the world those idiots got their energy. Still, it seemed as though the Level 0 delinquent that had joined their class fit right in which was somewhat of a relief given how worried he had looked when he had first joined the class.

Still, the girls wished that he had found a way of fitting in in some other way.

Quiet sobbing and tears of joy came from the corner of the room where Hamazura was as he let out his emotions, his mind's eye picturing perfection; of Takitsubo Rikou in bloomers revealing her entire thigh and legs. He had to thank Kinuhata later for the realisation: while Hamazura had already reached the conclusion of 100% leg, it was her exposition of her thighs that made him understand the worth of 100% thighs.

The sound of a door opening filled the room as everyone turned their heads to the newest occupant. They blinked upon seeing the scene in front of them: the sight of two members of the Delta Force and their newest member it seemed sitting in the corner.

"What's going on here?" came the voice as the two members of the Delta Force turned to face who had spoken however they stopped in their tracks as they looked at the person that had walked in.

"F-Fukiyose? Wh-What are you wearing?" asked Aogami. "A-And Hime-yan as well!"

"Huh? It was too hot so I asked the teachers if I could cut the gym shorts that I was wearing. I had folded them to make them bloomers but I felt as though there was no point in trying to make them something they're not. So I cut them. I have a spare pair at home so I have no worries doing this either. Himegami-san did the same."

"…As you can clearly see I did the same. I realise that was unnecessary but I just wanted the dialogue."

"But what's going on here? What did you guys do to that other guy?"

Hamazura heard the girl's voice as he rose his head and went wide eyed.

The Chest Girl (Hamazura forget her name) and the Invisible Girl next to her (Hamazura had forgotten her name as well) were standing in the doorway of the classroom. However, he found himself not looking at their faces but rather their gym shorts.

Or rather lack of them.

They had been cut in a way that meant that there was no material at all resembling the initial gym shorts. It was questionable whether they could be called make-shift bloomers anymore because the reality was simple.

They had been cut down entirely.

Their thighs were showing as the material was cut rather high, resembling panties if anything despite the fact that they were covering such. There was a little leeway meaning that they weren't such in reality, giving the impression that they were either hot pants or extremely short bloomers.

The thighs filled his vision but even then, the utopia did not stop there.

In their hands they held their shoes and socks for whatever reason, meaning that the full majesty of their legs was in full view of Hamazura as there was nothing covering them. Like some kind of divine message from the gods, they seemed to glow with a warm bask of light coming from them, enveloping Hamazura fully as he embraced the warmth.

The Golden Ratio was real.

Bloomers really could give you 100% thighs and 100% legs if you believed.

"…It was worth it."

Hamazura let out that small voice as he mentally pictured Takitsubo Rikou in the same get up, having the physical thing in front of him meaning that the mental imaging process in his mind went perfectly well, giving him a mental eyeful of what his Level 4 girlfriend would look like in that fashion style.

Needless to say though, that in turn elicited a single reaction.

Blood shot out of Hamazura's nose because of the mental stimulus as he fell to the ground, being the happiest that he had felt he could be in a while as imaginary Takitsubo's and her thighs and legs hovered around him.

Never in his life had he seen such a beautiful thing.

And for the life of him, Hamazura Shiage truly felt as though he owed Kamijou Touma his life for giving him the chance to view such a beautiful sight.

The grin on his face as his nose continued to drip with blood was only a testament to that pure happiness he felt.

* * *

**So, what would you say the Golden Ratio would be? I hope I arrived at the correct answer for you, unlike what I did with Touma's desk.**


	39. The Zero Swap: KT equals HS

Chaos within Normalcy. _Life_Escape_-_Kamijou_Touma._

They might have had different pasts, different personalities and different tastes but the three members of ITEM that had been instructed to 'take care' of a single boy in order to provide him some relaxation when he had done so much for Hamazura Shiage all had different reactions to what had happened to them only minutes ago.

Mugino Shizuri was livid, trembling with rage and gritting her teeth so hard that she felt as though if she pressed down any harder, her teeth would sink into her lower jaw and be rooted there until she got them fixed. Killer intent radiated from her in waves and people who got a good look at her hurried away as they feared for their lives.

Kinuhata Saiai was rolling on the floor, laughing. Tears were streaming from her eyes as she clutched her sides, unable to control herself as she tried to take in deep breaths but to no avail as she continued to let out that cheerful laugh into the air.

Takitsubo Rikou though had the most surprising reaction. Probably because of her usual stoic expression, the fact that her eyes were wide with surprise suggested that the scene in front of her was something that deserved a reaction in the first place.

To be honest, for those that looked at the scene that the trio were in front of, it was hard to not have a reaction.

Anything anyone else thought though was lost as Mugino spat out her words, the tone of voice she was using so cold that if one added water, it was probably possible to freeze it instantly using nothing but her voice.

"You had one job."

"….I know that."

"You had one job. One simple job."

The person that Mugino was speaking to had his head down as he sat down seiza style. His trembling made it seem as though he was scared however in truth it was more the coldness in Mugino's voice that was causing him to tremble so much. He had expected the girl to react in the few hours that they had known each other however the complete fit of rage she had gotten into when _the incident _had happened had left his expectations entirely.

Girls were scary.

That was the thought that accompanied the boy's shaking as Mugino continued speaking.

"You were told to get drinks. That's it. Nothing hard. Nothing major and nothing fucking difficult."

"I-I know that but – "

"Shut the fuck up when I'm talking to you! You had one job! You needed to get drinks! That was it!"

Mugino stepped forward, the killing intent moving with her as the people around the quartet jumped and hurried away as Mugino seemed close to breaking. It was rare to see the girl so angry and the only time that Kinuhata and Takitsubo had seen it themselves was when Mugino had been hell bent on killing Hamazura Shiage but the context to why Mugino was so angry only made the scene in front of them that more hilarious (to Kinuhata) and shocking (to Takitsubo). The fact that Mugino herself seemed to revert back to her nature of swearing when it was unnecessary was a testament to that anger as she spat out her question.

"So how, how in the _hell_, did you manage to come back with the ice dispenser stuck to your hand you total dumbass!?"

Those few words caused Kinuhata to break into more laughter as she continued rolling on the floor laughing. Mugino would have a word with her later however she was more focused on the boy in front of her, the person that Hamazura had asked them to 'show a good time'.

They had all been against it, mainly because they had better things to do with their time than to act as a chauffeur however given that Hamazura said that they technically 'owed him one because he saved the world', the trio had been roped into guiding the boy around town for a good time. The added mystery of what Hamazura said as well as the fact that they had the chance to get some shopping done were the excuses that Mugino and Kinuhata had come up with, while Takitsubo did not really care (although she was a little upset that she was not spending time with Hamazura) which had finally convinced them to drag the boy in front of them around town.

It was lunch time and with the three girls either pissed, laughing or shocked, all thoughts of hunger were lost as they reacted to the sight of Kamijou Touma in front of them.

For all intents and purposes, they had been interested (although it was nothing more than a passing fancy) in the spiky haired boy since they had seen him with Hamazura on November 5th and his involvement in the Dianoid incident on December 1st. The three of them weren't eager enough to search him out so they had felt as though the chance to hang out with him was something like a blessing in disguise.

Oh, how wrong they could have been.

They had been waiting for half an hour in the morning for the boy to turn up at the designated location, something that Mugino had been annoyed about as not even Hamazura was that tardy, only for the boy to turn up with a foot inside a paint bucket. How the hell he had managed to get it stuck there was beyond them but they had to take a detour from the Underground Shopping Mall in order to visit an Anti-Skill station to get it removed.

While that in itself was not something that was majorly bad, the fact that the four of them had gotten stuck inside the elevator while heading up to one of the floors that would get the paint bucket off had started what seemed to be the chain of misfortune that followed the boy. With the paint fumes gathering inside the enclosed space going along the lines of dangerous, Mugino had been forced to use her ability to cut a hole in the roof to allow the fumes to escape.

This had in turn meant that the wire allowing the elevator to run had been destroyed, sending the quartet plunging down 3 floors.

Kinuhata had been fine with her Offence Armour protecting her albeit doing so automatically to her advantage but it had been Mugino herself that had not been so lucky. With the fall causing everyone to lose their footing, the paint bucket had somehow planted itself in her face during the fall, spreading paint not only on her face but also her clothes. **[1]**

While that impact had dislodged the paint bucket, the wound that Mugino received (a rather nasty bruise) and the beating Kamijou received in response was hardly something to laugh at. After Kinuhata had broken them out of the elevator using her power to control nitrogen they had naturally left the Anti-Skill office in a hurry to avoid the fines of breaking the elevator and getting into trouble for the chaos they caused.

They had then headed straight to the Underground Mall in District 7 where Mugino had insisted (more threatened) Kamijou to pay for her clothes. Upon fainting when he saw the price and landing on the floor where he could see both Mugino and Kinuhata's panties, they had thrown him out of the store. Takitsubo had accompanied him as he landed in the bushes while the two girls did their shopping although belatedly realising that Kamijou hadn't seen anything as he had fainted before he could.

Strangely oblivious to what he had done and also rather resilient to the punishment that had been dished out to him, the boy had kept on going after all that, offering to buy the girls morning tea as a way of thanks for letting him relax. They had accepted although before Kamijou could arrive back to them with the ice creams he had bought, an over-friendly golden retriever had tackled him to the ground and stolen what looked to have been a freebie that had been provided with the purchase.

Explaining that what had been stolen had been some kind of backstage pass to some Tosa idol in District 15 that the owner of the ice cream shop had wanted to get rid of had not improved Mugino's mood given that the ice cream had fallen on her and the others. Kinuhata had seemed rather annoyed at the incident with Takitsubo seemingly indifferent.

With Mugino leading the group out of the Mall on the verge of losing it entirely, the fact that the newly bought clothes were ruined as well served nothing to lessen her foul mood.

Granted, while if it had been the _old _Mugino, Kamijou would have been killed practically the moment he had faced his misfortune, the _current _Mugino had at least the sense to not outright kill him where he stood as he asked what the group was going to do next. Her rationale and self-restraint had developed greatly since the Battle Royale but the rage at the boy's casual statement had almost caused her to break.

Seeing that Mugino was trying extremely hard to calm herself in the face of what seemed to be an endless unlucky streak, Takitsubo had suggested that the quartet do something that Kamijou wanted to do. As he had no plans for the day, he at the very least wanted to go shopping for the day's dinner or lunch if ITEM had wanted him to cook for them.

They had all declined as such would mean he would have to go to ITEM's apartment or they would have to go to his place and they were reluctant to have either case so the boy had dragged them to the nearest supermarket. He constantly glanced at Mugino who seemed to be slowly calming down, asking Kinuhata and Takitsubo whether she was alright.

Highly amused at what Kamijou had been put through already and his constant cries of 'such misfortune' (which were pretty unscientific given he was in Academy City), Kinuhata had refused to answer in order to not intervene; she was having too much fun. Takitsubo though only gave short sentence answers such as "She's fine" and "Don't worry" to the boy.

As a whole, it seemed as though she was more interested in his right hand meaning that Kamijou truly wondered what type of people Hamazura Shiage usually hung out with. Granted that Hamazura was probably hanging out with Tsuchimikado Motoharu and Aogami Pierce right now meant that he had no right to talk though.

Still, he had entered the supermarket with the others, wondering what he was going to make Index for dinner when, just as expected (and as Kinuhata had hoped), disaster had struck.

Kamijou and the others had little explanation for how he had managed to knock over the oranges standing in the stands, only to slip and fall as he stepped on some while trying to dodge the others. He had unfortunately dragged the others down with him and with Kinuhata's Offence Armour activating automatically in response to the fall, she had crushed numerous oranges underneath her.

The juices had naturally sprayed all over the trio that did not have such defences, leaving them sticky and rather uncomfortable. This of course had been unfairly blamed on Kamijou who Mugino and even Takitsubo physically attacked as they were forced to leave the supermarket for the damage that they were causing.

Utterly tired, tuckered out and needing some refreshments, Mugino had dragged the boy against his will for lunch, something that he was going to have to pay for. He had whimpered and complained the entire way as they had made their way to ITEM's regular restaurant, Mugino tasking him with the relative easy task of getting the three girls drinks.

They had placed their orders, with ice of course and Kamijou had walked over to the drinks machine. Of course, the three girls who had been kept waiting longer than they thought, had stood up and walked over to the drinks machine, only to go pale as they saw the sight in front of them.

Through some freak of nature, Kamijou Touma had managed to get his hand stuck in the ice dispenser. His hand was inside the main dispenser part, almost like a ventriloquist and he had both of his feet against the wall, pressing hard while trying to remove his hand. Numerous waiters and waitresses were grabbing onto him and pulling as hard as they could but to no avail.

His hand was stuck and upon seeing Mugino and the others, Kamijou had called out to them, laughed and said that it would take a while to get the drinks.

It was then that Mugino Shizuri had lost it.

She didn't know whether it was the laugh that was meant to reassure her, the comment that he made to suggest that everything was fine or the fact that he seemed used to this sort of thing. Mugino had simply lost it.

Without mercy, she had unleashed a Meltdowner beam and split the drinks machine in two without thinking that there were people that could have been caught in the blast as the machine was cut in two. Kamijou and everyone grabbing onto him had fallen to the ground, the former looking rather pale at the strength Mugino showed.

His hand was still stuck within the drinks machine ice dispenser though as Mugino had not cut off the entire thing as she had twitched while looking at the boy, a ball of light hovering over her shoulder as she stepped in front of Kamijou. His face had paled as he had held up the hand caught in the ice dispenser (his right) in front of him on instinct.

Yet the beam had never come.

Instead the owner had placed his hand on Mugino's shoulder and promptly threw the quartet out.

Thus, leading to the current situation.

Kamijou Touma sat seiza style in front of the girls (Mugino who had some water where the paint had previously been, a bruise on her cheek from the paint can and a citrus scent coming from her clothes; Kinuhata who was still laughing and Takitsubo who had the same citrus scent coming from her), with his right hand caught in the ice dispenser.

The cold that filled his right hand was almost tortuous and he wondered if he could get frostbite from something like this. What with Mugino adding to the chill, Kamijou hardly felt that any warmth was going to be sent his way anytime soon.

And this was supposed to be a 'good time'!

In response to Mugino's question though, Kamijou hurriedly spoke in an apologetic tone as he hung his head slightly. He certainly had expected her to react in anger but not like this! He felt bad for having the group that was not used to his misfortune exposed to it in this fashion so the apology that came out of his mouth was genuine.

"I-I'm sorry! You wanted ice so I tried to get some out of the machine. It was making a whirring sound but nothing was coming out and looking on the underside, I could tell that there was some just stuck inside."

"So you just stuck your hand in there?!"

"Yes!"

Mugino was caught off guard from the admission of the boy's action. He seemed to realise in hindsight that it was stupid but the fact that he readily admitted his stupidity only caused Mugino to become speechless.

"I wanted to get some more out so I stuck my hand in there! If I knew it would have gotten stuck I wouldn't have done it though. D-Damn it, I really can't feel my hand. Such misfortune."

"Can you stop saying that?! I swear that the next time that I hear that phrase come from that filthy mouth of yours, I'm going to break your jaw! And Kinuhata, can you shut the hell up!?"

Mugino tried to calm herself however the sound of the girl next to her rolling on the floor while clutching her stomach only provided more distractions. Kinuhata rose her head, wiping tears from her eyes as she tried to compose herself.

"S-Sorry, sorry Mugino. It…It's just that it's…it's…." Kinuhata turned to Kamijou who looked rather pitiful sitting seiza with an ice dispenser on his hand as she covered her mouth with her hands. "That expression! That face with that super expression! It's super gold! And when he had his hand stuck….Bwahahahaha! I can't take it! I can't! Hahahahaha!"

Kinuhata laughed at Kamijou's pain as the boy felt he had lost an ally somewhere in the world as Mugino struggled to get her thoughts together. In truth, when the boy had come with the paint bucket stuck on his foot saying that he needed to visit an Anti-Skill office, she had felt a _sliver _of pity for him.

That had disappeared entirely though when he had smashed her in the face with the paint bucket.

Somehow the phrase that he always seemed to say; 'Such misfortune' accurately described his life and it was amazing how simply after meeting him that Mugino felt as though she suddenly believed in curses, luck and other occult related things that had nothing to do with Science.

"Does this happen to you a lot Kamijou-san?"

Takitsubo was the one that asked that as Kamijou gave a sheepish grin while trying to rub the back of his head with his right hand, only for the ice dispenser stuck to that hand to rub against his head instead.

"Hahaha. More than you'd think. I'd say around…a third of my day is usually like this."

"A third! Bwahahahaha! You have that super look on your face for a third of the day!? Bwhahahaha!"

Kinuhata's expected comment drew a dirty look from Kamijou as he glowered at her while Takitsubo merely put on an expression that suggested that she truly felt sorry for the boy that was made to endure all this pain.

"I can see why Hamazura thought you needed a break. It must be really, really hard." Takitsubo said that in an emotionless voice however Kamijou only let out a laugh that could be deemed 'forced'. His life was indeed hard however he felt as though if he managed to push through these sorts of things then it was surely going to get better.

After all, he had seen some light in the world and with that goodness always being remembered in the back of his mind, he at least had the energy to take another step forward into the day despite his misfortune.

Such optimistic thinking though was hardly shared by Mugino as she sighed, slowly managing to calm herself while looking at the boy.

Her mind turned. As the #4, she had been tasked with a job but at the same time, this job was something that she could deem as 'impossible'. Given what this boy was saying, the amount of misfortune that he faced was something that took up at least a third of his day. And looking at what he _had _faced, that was a figure that could not be laughed at.

His life was pitiful. It was the pits and she wondered how in the world he and Hamazura had become friends and how Kamijou managed to put on a smile and wake up every day. He had seemed awfully driven in the Dianoid and Mugino had seen him fight; he had talent in that aspect at the very least but it truly made her wonder what drove the boy to wake up day after day and take the energy to face the world when this is what it threw at him.

Without realising it, some part of Mugino felt as though she had it lucky, and given her past it was very rarely she felt that. But somehow, this boy and his own life truly made her think that the things that she had been put through and survived which led to the position that she held today was something that was truly a gift granted to her.

ITEM, Frenda, Hamazura and what had happened between them; all of that no matter how painful it was had led to this and Mugino truly felt as though she was lucky to stand where she was right now.

Of course, she could only say that when looking at this poor bastard.

"Goddamn it. How the hell are we supposed to show you a good time when this is what you give us Kamijou?" spat out Mugino. Her words were sharp and tense however at the same time there was a desire to at the very least complete the goal that Hamazura had set her.

Whatever Hamazura saw in this boy, he had stated that she owed him for some reason or another. As a rule, holding debts to people she barely knew was something she was against but despite her initial impressions of the boy, she genuinely felt as though Kamijou Touma was a good person.

He was someone that chose to face the day, laughed in the face of adversity and tried to see the bright side of things. He wanted to at least make sure that he made the girls comfortable despite not knowing them; him offering to make lunch for them being a testament to that fact.

For someone that had stepped and was rooted in the Darkness as Mugino Shizuri was, seeing someone like Kamijou Touma went against her entire being. He was someone that she could classify as 'normal' and 'a good person'; directly opposite to the existence that Mugino Shizuri had once been, and still was.

By no means was the path to redemption for her going to finish with merely accepting that she had killed Frenda and moving on. That was a major step but hardly something that was the end game. There were things that still had to be done and Mugino herself realised that fully.

But somehow, like Hamazura had suggested, maybe if she gave something to a 'good person' such as Kamijou Touma, then he would show her something back in return without realising it. She doubted that Hamazura had such an idea like that but it wasn't something that was just going to happen possibly.

It already had.

Without realising it, Mugino Shizuri had realised that her life was something that she should be glad was still here; she was lucky to be alive and not living a life filled with endless misfortune.

It pissed her off that she had come to that realisation only by hanging around Kamijou himself and the want to get rid of debts (even though she had accumulated more) led to that exasperated comment.

"Sorry for the trouble." Kamijou apologised as he slowly stood up, rubbing his neck with his left hand rather sheepishly as Mugino clicked her tongue and put a hand to the bridge of her nose.

"Takitsubo, Kinuhata. What do you suggest we do?" Mugino turned to her friends and asked for their advice. "Today has been a disaster but we may as well make something out of it given that we've been made to accompany this pain in the ass around."

"Ha…ha… I'm OK with anything. It's going to be amusing anyway."

"…..I get the feeling that you summed up my life in a rather harsh way there…." Kamijou said in a crestfallen tone, as a dark aura seemed to surround him. Takitsubo merely shrugged at the suggestion however pointed to the ice dispenser that was hanging on his hand.

"I believe we should at the very least get that off Kamijou-san's hand. I don't think that it's very comfortable."

All eyes turned to the ice dispenser as heads tilted and arms were crossed as they tried to devise a solution to the problem on hand (pun intended).

"Yeah. Can't you create another one of those beam things there Mugino?" asked Kamijou to which Mugino shot him a glare.

"Don't forget the honorific there Kamijou-_san_. We're not close enough that I'm going to allow you to call me that when I don't particularly want to see you again. People like you and me don't mix but because of this debt, I don't have a choice."

Kamijou tilted his head in confusion at that but both of the other girls of ITEM looked at their leader with narrowed eyes and looks of comprehension as they processed the words that Mugino was saying and the feelings that were probably behind them.

The silence that came over the group though was unsettling for the spiky haired boy as he rose his right hand with the ice dispenser still attached to it.

"I-I'm not really sure what you mean there Mugino-san, but my question still stands. Can't you create one of those beam things from before?"

"Not if you want to keep that hand attached to your body. If I unleashed my Meltdowner beam now, we'd get a cacophony of screams as you lament your dominant hand." Replied Mugino in a bored tone as Kamijou blinked in response.

"Huh? Oh right. You're thinking that your beam will burn through my hand. I see, I see."

Kamijou nodded and said something cryptic as it was this time that the others looked at him with suspicious gazes, wondering what in the world the boy was talking about. He had seen firsthand the power Mugino had used and its strength however the knowledge of Imagine Breaker was something that the members of ITEM didn't know.

Given that he could always explain it to them, Kamijou felt as though there was no need; he didn't want to have to put up with the usual "What?! There's no such power as the power to negate" and "Prove it to me" and suddenly having a strong esper as an unneeded rival in his already complicated life.

Yes! There was going to be no long winded explanation of Imagine Breaker this time around! The trouble it created just wasn't worth it!

"What are you talking about? Of course my Meltdowner beam will slice your hand. Are you saying you want to give it a go?"

"Nonononono! Not particularly! I-I mean; I was thinking that maybe you could just apply the beam as a source of heat to melt the material of the ice dispenser?" asked Kamijou helpfully as he dodged the issue however it was Kinuhata that spoke up now.

"If you're fine super burning your hand in the process sure. The only thing that I can think of is getting a buzz saw of some kind to cut through the material. That or some kind of vice to super crush the thing." Kinuhata suggested that in turn as Kamijou's face went pale.

"Absolutely not! I can already imagine what's going to happen in the case of such to this Kamijou-san! Either 'Whoops, the blade slipped' and a fountain of blood comes pouring out or 'Whoops, we crushed your right hand' and I have to release the hidden power within my left hand! I don't want to have to put up with either!" Kamijou shouted that into the air as Kinuhata smiled and began to open her mouth before stopping. She rose a hand thoughtfully to her chin.

"Given everything I've seen today I can super see that happening."

"Right?!"

"Which is why we should super go for it!"

"Are you an S? Are you an S?! What has this Kamijou-san done to you?"

Kamijou was basically on the verge of tears as Kinuhata laughed even though Kamijou seemed to tremble in fear at the fact that she could laugh so casually about the fact that she wanted to dismember the boy without a second thought. She was joking right? Right?!

"We could try another method." Takitsubo was the one that gave that suggestion as all eyes turned to her now.

"Well? What do you suggest then Takitsubo?" asked Mugino thoughtfully as the girl pointed to Kinuhata.

"What Kinuhata said has some merit." She replied in a brief statement as Kinuhata nodded rather proudly.

"Right? So Kamijou-san, will it be a buzz saw or a hydraulic press?"

"Neither! I want neither! I-It really is the quiet ones that you have to watch out for! Takitsubo-san, it's your suggestion that has me the most worried! Do you feel nothing at all for me?! How can you calmly state that you agree with Kinuhata-san!?" Kamijou cried out once more however it was Takitsubo that shook her head while pointing at the ice dispenser.

"I meant what Kinuhata said about crushing the ice dispenser. While the machine it came from was metal, the dispenser is plastic. Hit it hard enough and it should smash." She said plainly as everyone there blinked at the rather plain suggestion that had the most amount of common sense.

"But what would we hit it against?" Kamijou rose the obvious question as Mugino rose an eyebrow, looking at Takitsubo more now rather than Kamijou whose problem this was.

"Good idea there Takitsubo. Come on now Kamijou-san, I'm pretty sure that there is a batting range nearby." Replied Mugino as Kamijou went pale once more at the sub-suggestion that she had made.

"Why is it that everything you guys suggest lean one way or another towards something that is going to cause me harm?! Having a couple of girls swinging bats on my right hand is not going to make me feel comfortable. Judging by my misfortune I can only imagine the event of 'Whoops my hand slipped', only for my nose to break!"

"Goddamn it Kamijou! Do you want that thing off you or not?! Stop shooting down our suggestions or come up with one yourself!" Mugino barked in exasperation as Kinuhata put her hand up. All eyes turned to her as Kamijou blinked once.

"Yes…..?" he asked in a careful tone, not sure if Kinuhata was being a smartass or had an actual contribution to make.

"You could use a buzz saw in order to create a crack within the material."

"ENOUGH WITH THE BUZZ SAW! I seriously think that you need to go and get your head checked out if that is the first thing that comes to mind! I don't need a batting or that! I can just….do this!"

Kamijou reacted suddenly and instantly. Spreading his legs apart, he threw his right arm into the air and sent it down fast. It sailed downwards and hit the ground hard with a resounding 'thump' sound as everyone looked at Kamijou who merely blinked twice before reacting to what he had just done.

"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?!"

He screamed in pain, holding his hand however only clutching the plastic of the ice dispenser as he vocalised his reaction to the pain.

Luckily, he could still feel his hand. Unfortunately, on the other hand the cold meant that the pain from smashing his hand into the ground was all the greater as he rolled around on the ground. The others either let out a sigh or stifled a laugh. Mugino put a hand to her forehead.

"Are you serious? Did you really think that that would work? If it could be smashed just like that don't you think us beautiful girls would have thought of that already?" Mugino asked to which Kamijou looked directly at her face.

"Given everything that you were suggesting I seriously thought that it might have slipped your m – Ow! Stop stomping on my hand like that Mugino-san, it's seriously going to break! The cold has it more sensitive to this sort of thing so please stop!"

Mugino relinquished her punishment of the boy for his stupid comment as he tried to hold his cold hand however he only touched the plastic of the ice dispenser that was stuck to it. He almost burst into tears from the pain however endured as Kinuhata merely held up a single finger as if trying to be wise.

"See? This is why I told you we needed the super buzz saw. You'd need something on that level to cut through that plastic. The restaurants don't want people messing with what they purchase so they put a surprisingly amount of money into those super things. As a result, you get some serious tough plastic." She explained.

"What the hell is that? Can't we melt it then?! Mugino-san, use your Meltupper beam!"

"It's MeltDOWNER you bloody dumbass! Kinuhata!"

"Roger!"

Kinuhata performed an odd wrestling move at Mugino's command on the boy as he lay on the ground, sitting on his back and grabbing his legs, wrenching them backwards as Kamijou cried out in pain. He slammed his hand on the ground in order to make her stop however the only thing that served was to cause more pain to flow through the hard plastic and into his hand.

Mugino grumbled under her breath as Takitsubo tilted her head at the scene. It was rare to see Mugino doing this kind of thing, especially in public. Even as a part of a boke and tsukkomi routine, having Kinuhata act so lively and the fact that Takitsubo was joining in as well by providing her suggestion provided some kind of familiarity to the entire scene that she found easy to explain.

The personality of the boy, his flippant attitude and his way of interacting with each of the members of ITEM. It was…

"It's just like Frenda."

Takitsubo said that without really thinking about it as both of the girls turned to look at her. They blinked once before their eyes went wide in recognition as they stared back at the boy who was crying out in pain, both at the wrestling move that Kinuhata was performing as well as the fact that he was causing his own pain by smashing his hand against the ground.

The scene was similar, although less intense, to the type of trouble Frenda Seivelun had caused herself within ITEM. Being the person that got on everyone's nerves yet doing so in a way that was pretty light hearted herself, while there were differences between Kamijou and Frenda, right here and now there was an odd familiarity.

It was as if the girl were here with them, causing trouble and making Mugino task Kinuhata with the punishment that she would also dish out herself later. It seemed as though Kamijou himself did not realise who they were talking about as he asked Kinuhata to let go of his legs but the fact of the matter was that the similarities were there.

Mugino opened her mouth to say something however shook her head at what she wanted to say. Instead she frowned, placing her hands on her hips and instead saying something entirely different.

"Hardly. There's too much difference between them; Frenda stood in a scary place in the division of Light and Dark. Besides, I figure that if the two of them met, they would either be the best of friends…or the worst of enemies." Mugino gave her honest opinion as Kinuhata looked back at her leader, now grabbing Kamijou's other arm and twisting it in an odd direction that caused him to yell out now.

"Or lovers."

"Isn't what I said the same thing?" asked Mugino as she crossed her arms now.

"Is…that how you see Hamazura and Takitsubo? Well, I guess you could super say that they are both the best of friends and worst of enemies." Noted Kinuhata as she turned to Takitsubo who had her eyes narrowed.

"I'm not too sure what to say to that."

"Can you have this girlish conversation elsewhere?! My arm! My arm! Can't you smash this ice dispenser anyone!?" Kamijou cried out in pain as Mugino seemed fed up with it all as she turned to Kinuhata.

"Kinuhata. Hold him to the ground. I'll step on him with my heel; if that doesn't work, I'll use an application of Meltdowner to singe the top of the dispenser while we can get back to the job that we've been tasked to do."

"Got it. Hold it there Kamijou-saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan." Kinuhata grinned as she leaned fully on Kamijou's body, the boy on the ground as he shifted his head in order to try and see what was going on.

"Wait a minute! I heard Meltdowner in that sentence! I heard it! What are you doing!? A-And Kinuhata-san? I've wondered for a while now but are you wearing pants underneath that knit dress? I'm more worried about the Meltdowner thing though! Still, about the pants!"

Kamijou seemed conflicted about which issue was the one that he had to focus on in this dire situation as Kinuhata pressed against his arm a little harder to at the very least cause him some discomfort. He grunted and started to squirm in response as Kinuhata responded to his statement.

"You mentioned it twice? You'll be fine without a hand or two I'm sure. And besides, thighs are the super best."

"I'm not entirely sure that that answers either of my questions and that's what scares me! Takitsubo-saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan! Help meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

"…You'll be fine Kamijou-san."

"I was abandoned already?!"

"Hold him steady…." Mugino stood above him as the boy started to seriously get a cold sweat over his entire body. He wasn't worried about the fact that his right hand was about to be chopped off. It had happened before and while there was a great deal of pain involved, it was not what he was worried about.

No, there was _something _that came out whenever his right hand was chopped off. With the Daihaseisai and WWIII as reference points of that thing, there was definitely the chance that whatever came out of his right hand would attack the three girls in front of him because they were the ones threatening him.

The image of their bodies being torn into by...whatever was inside his right hand caused a chill to go up his spine as he seriously spoke against the idea. If there was a tiny chance of it happening, he wanted to stop it entirely as a desperation filled his voice.

"H-Hang on there! Reconsider. Reconsider! This isn't going to end well!"

It happened in an instant.

All of a sudden that was a sound of something exploding and a flash of light entered everyone's eyes. It had come from nowhere yet at the same time registered within each of their minds. The flash bang that had gone off was something that each and every one of them knew the meaning of, all of them understanding the procedures that were publicly announced about Judgment activities.

The flash bang meant one thing and one thing only.

It was an evacuation order, something that indicated to those people in the surrounding area of the flash bang that a battle was about to get underway; something that would require the forces of Anti-Skill and Judgment. The flash bang warned that if one was in the direct vicinity of said battle, innocents would surely be harmed. Everyone around Kamijou stopped what they were doing and reacted immediately.

Instantly the streets were filled with shouts and screams as people fled their vehicles, the streets and entered nearby buildings for cover. With the sound of metal moving, the shutters on the surrounding buildings started to close as Kamijou on the ground turned to face them.

"H-Hey! Are you serious!? Come on guys, at the very least we have to get indoors. If we get caught up in this then – "

"Shut up Kamijou. Kinuhata, Takitsubo, do you feel that?" Mugino spoke in a cold voice that seemed far removed from the tone that she had been using beforehand. It made Kamijou's blood freeze as he felt the hand gripping his right arm tighten. He winced however knew that to speak now would mean disaster for him.

That was what this atmosphere told him.

"Yeah. With the peace we have, I super didn't think that they would move."

"It's distorted…but still there. Almost as if there are elements of the Light involved."

"Surely they are nothing but being used. This is going to get hairy."

Kamijou was silent as he tried to read the atmosphere as well however the sounds of footsteps from in front of the group made him shift his gaze on the ground towards his front. There was a Judgment officer there he didn't recognise; someone with large breasts and glasses. Yet they were not the only ones there.

A couple of Anti-Skill officers and other Judgment members were by her side and the worry on their faces was obvious. A nervous sweat covered them all and it was clear that they were on their guard as the girl in front (the one that Kamijou had seen) spoke up.

"Stop right there. You're all under arrest!"

There was silence as Mugino frowned, stepping backwards not in anticipation to flee but rather to speak to Kinuhata and the others in a low voice without being heard.

"What's your read on these bastards?" Mugino asked her companion as Kinuhata sat on top of Kamijou without a care, observing what was in front of her.

"Not all of them are on the Dark side. The others in the front…they're probably meat shields but also unwilling accomplices. They're probably thinking of using the ones in the Light to super arrest us and then the Dark side 'transports' us to wherever they want to take us. Cheh. This has gotten some super bad taste behind it." Kinuhata remarked that as Takitsubo frowned as well.

"There are some I recognise. I've 'read' them before."

"This could be troublesome then." Remarked Mugino finally as she spoke up to the people in the front.

"Hello there officers. Would you be able to tell us what this is all about?" Mugino put on a calm voice that seemed to control the entire situation as everyone else seemed to tense at the voice. The girl seemed to swallow her nerves as she too took a step forward and spoke.

"Y-You are all requested to come quietly. You have been seen sabotaging and attacking an Anti-Skill station and escaping. There is video evidence and plenty of witnesses so we cannot allow you to remain walking around like this. We request that you come with us until proper punishment is determined."

"What?"

"Huh?"

"?"

The three girls made that remark as they blinked in complete confusion. They had attacked and sabotaged an Anti-Skill station? If the Dark side was thinking of capturing the girls using that as an excuse to arrest them in the first place by using the aspects of the Light, then it was a poor one entirely.

Firstly, there would have had to have been an attack on an Anti-Skill station in the first place. And as far as the others knew there had been nothing of the sort. If there was no attack, then there was nothing to ignite this spark that surrounded the members of ITEM right now. It made no sense that they would fabricate an entire attack just to arrest them; it was too roundabout for the Dark side when a single bullet could move entire plans.

No, it seemed as though this was more of an opportunity taken.

Thus, there had to have been an Anti-Skill station attacked and sabotaged. And the Dark side of Academy City was willing to pretend that the perpetrators of the attack were the three girls of ITEM in order to provide an excuse to arrest them so that the Dark side could re…cap…ture…

Wait.

An attack? On an Anti-Skill station?

Hadn't they all visited an Anti-Skill station to remove the paint bucket on Kamijou's foot? And when the elevator had gotten stuck, Mugino had severed the elevator's cable with her Meltdowner beam and Kinuhata had blown a hole in the side of the elevator to allow the others to escape?

The Dark side didn't need to frame them; they had committed the act themselves.

Which meant that the one that had given the Dark side the opportunity to provide an excuse to capture them was…

All eyes turned to the boy on the ground as he blinked.

"What?"

His casual comment that was oblivious to his crime caused them all to twitch as the girl Judgment member spoke up once more.

"_All you 4 _are under arrest on the charges of sabotage and non-permitted use of dangerous powers. The use of the #4 Level 5's ability Meltdowner as well as the Level 4 ability Offence Armour being used in a dangerous way is evidence of this. You're all under arrest!"

"Hang on a minute! You _four_!? And what was that about Meltdowner being the #4?!"

Kamijou gave out that yell on the ground as Kinuhata grabbed the boy's head and started to squeeze.

"You've really given us a lot of trouble haven't you Kamijou?" said Kinuhata with clear malice in her eyes as Kamijou started to sweat all over. Although that was her expression there was a smile on her face that seemed to only hold joy; something that Kamijou truly found was terrifying.

"I think that this throws the task of 'having a good time' out the window doesn't it?" Despite what was going on, Takitsubo seemed rather calm at the entire thing as Mugino slowly turned her head to face Kamijou, her eyes having changed colour to give off a red glow as she seemed to have grown demon horns and leaked miasma from her mouth.

"Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamijouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu…"

"Wait! Hang on just a minute! This isn't my fault! It was the paint bucket! The paint bucket!" Kamijou cried out as Mugino acted, grabbing Kamijou by the front and shaking him back and forth rather violently after lifting him from the ground.

"Does. It. Look. Like. I. Care?!"

"StoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOp!" Kamijou's head became a blur as the law enforcement officers looked on with pure wonder at what was happening as Mugino pressed her face against his in a dangerously close fashion.

"You're in this with us then Kamijou. If we want to drop these charges, we're going to have to find out who's seeking our arrest and get them to reverse it. And you're stuck in this too I'll have you know. That means you're in the same boat as us." Mugino spat out those words dangerously as Kamijou paled.

"I-I can't get arrested now! I've got my attendance to keep up! And what is this stuff about you being the #4!?"

"Do you think we have time to deal with this?! Like I said, you're in the same boat as us now Kamijou. The first thing that we need to do is escape. And then hunt down the bastard that thinks that they can take away what we've earned. Hamazura should be safe as he can't be properly framed, as is Fremea but I think it can't be said the same for you." Mugino Shizuri said in soft tones.

"Are you serious?!"

"Well…I definitely have to say that this takes the cake. Congratulations Kamijou; your life is _officially _the super worst on Earth. Probably in the ever-expanding universe as well." Kinuhata Saiai noted with a smile as she patted Kamijou on the back.

"H-Hang on just a minute!"

"Sorry Kamijou. We couldn't give you a good time. But, look on the bright side. I think it might be because we think of you as a sort of second Frenda, but we're dropped the honorifics." Takitsubo Rikou provided that consolation however it fell on deaf ears.

"That's not what I want! I've been framed! This isn't – "

"You better get ready!"

The person holding him spoke and with an ice dispenser on his hand, Kamijou Touma only said one thing with a slight tear in his eyes which had gained a dead expression.

"Such misfortune."

Without realising it, Kamijou truly felt as though if this was the everyday life that Hamazura Shiage lived, then he didn't want to take part in it for an extended period of time.

No, that was probably wrong.

Maybe it was just that no matter where he went or what he did, misfortune would always follow.

The bright lights from a Meltdowner beam, explosions and gunshots filled the air as Kamijou Touma came to that realisation.

* * *

**[1] Offence Armour. Technically since I live in Australia where everything is trying to kill us, this might look a little off as I realise to those of you in America or reading the translations have it different which write it as 'Offense Armor'. Whatever the case, they are the same but I spell it differently so I hope it doesn't put you off.**

**Firstly before we begin, while my thanks is also applied to the usual 2 as well as Darkness1st for this idea, there is also an additional thanks that I have to do. And that's to my reviewer and friend pop2ww. As you can clearly see, this story has also gotten a cover image although I think it might be a bit hard to see with the text size, formatting and the like. However as you can probably tell by the fact that there are faces on it, the cover picture for Between the Line is a complete focus on a number of different characters from the Raildex franchise. BTL, while delving into a number of themes is mostly character based and for this alone, I hope that you can see the numerous characters that are in the cover image as well as you can. If you can't, that's fine, as long as you recognise that BTL focuses no not just Touma but also many of the other characters as well.**

**And it was pop2ww that did all of the work when it came to the image itself. While the art is from someone called saiba/CybeR from Pixiv and something that I don't own, the edits were done by pop2ww and they have contributed to this story in a large capacity just by producing that cover image. So to them, I say thanks for all of the work that they have done and truly, truly I want to thank them profusely for taking the time to do this cover image for me, just someone with a lot of spare time. Hopefully, even if you guys can't see all of the characters at least recognise the effort that has gone into making the changes and how BTL captures the characters in this way. **

**Before we get into my thoughts, here in the Q &amp; A:**

**Guest: Yes, the PROS and CONS two-shots are still running and your ideas have been taken into consideration for a later date! As for Aogami calling Himegami Hime-yan, there hasn't been a proper interaction between the two in the novels for me to know what Aogami calls her. However in the anime, which Kamachi apparently goes to the recording sessions for, Aogami calls her that. So I felt that keeping it such was the way to go. And as for Fukiyose beating up the boys in question, Hamazura's nosebleed was something that she wasn't used to and thus did not act on it based on the sight of blood that was pouring out. She's pretty passive when it comes to actual blood despite her violence right? In essence, Hamazura and the Delta Force got let off because off his nosebleed.**

**whwsms: Touma's desk last chapter was the true casualty. And I hope that the above chapter answered all of your previous questions too. But Frenda is clearly dead as noted as this was set in December of the timeline.**

**Riibas: Thank you for your kind words but I shall tell you now that ONE of these days, I will give Touma a break. I have no idea when it will be but he will have one. I swear it.**

**Guest: Nice idea but the only thing that I really have to say is that a Halloween chapter would be released on Halloween as would a Christmas chapter. But then again, I get the feeling that I'm not going to really do either of those when it comes down to it. As for the ideas themselves though, please keep waiting and one of these days I will surely get around to it…..**

**seiker: …I'm finding it really surreal how realistic and Touma-like that answer sounds. Personally, I'm not too sure how I would have had him answer but then again, the one that you provided is an answer that I am happy with when it comes down to it! My old high school had normal shorts but I think that they were pretty strict when it came to things such as revealing thighs. Maybe it was because high school is full of pubescent boys? It's probably a moral and sensitivity issue or something. After the events of the above chapter though, Touma probably rested his head on his desk when he got back to school, entirely exhausted and thought to himself 'What is this salty scent coming from my desk? And why is it wet?' after putting his face in it. …I truly an a sadist aren't I?**

**UCCMaster: If anything, I think that your answer there is the right one. Just turn off your brain and have a good time if anything. …And I'm in the same boat as you over cleavage vs. legs. And I also love Arisa and Shutaura so that idea has definitely been noted! But those other ideas sort of swim in my head for now but I'm not too sure what to do with them..**

**pop2ww: Thanks so much for your words! Before anything, no matter the themes and the nature of the request, it's the characters that I have to get down pat for the first thing to do so if I don't so that I think I've failed on some way. I'm glad that I've never seen a remark where they've said "XYZ character was TOTALLY OOC here" or if I have I can't remember so for that alone, I'm glad. Although I have to say quoting from you, "Aogami's world revolves around his fetishes and fetishes" is perhaps the shortest sentence that says so much about Aogami. You have surpassed me… And yes, I'm a sucker for harming Touma in my own way!**

**Matsura Chisaki: While her power was something similar to Agnese's, her character design was something of the complete opposite, similar to Chuukou Kyocho from Ikkitousen: Dragon Destiny except with perhaps larger breasts and with kinder eyes and glasses. To an extent, I wrote Matsura to be something of the exact opposite of Agnese however to be someone that was more of a fall guy type of person rather than anyone that might seem as though they had something special to accomplish amidst it all. In this sense, I wanted her to be perhaps something of a 'Science Agnese' that Touma had to face later in the game.**

**Muro Narahiko: Muro was perhaps the antagonist in the Hamazura arc that was meant to be faced by Hamazura and defeated by Hamazura. He is similar in design to Takumi Usui from Kaichou wa Maid-sama! in the sense that if were to develop him in a particular direction, he would have been a more twisted Hamazura. His power was Keratin Stone so in a way he was entirely focused on strength and nothing else, similar to how Hamazura was before he faced Touma. The main 'villain' for Hamazura would have been Muro mainly because of how similarly twisted they were before going done different paths so for that alone, I wanted him to be similar yet also different from Hamazura. I have a thing for comparisons and characters facing someone similar to themselves as you can probably guess.**

**Iriye Kinnojo: He was sort of a 'sub-boss' for Hamazura, someone that is prim and proper and looks something like Uryuu Ishida from Bleach without glasses. The impression I wanted you to have of him was that just from looks alone, he had abilities however it was subverted in that Iriye was a Level 0 without any power whatsoever, a perfect warm up for Hamazura. In this sense, I also wanted to show that there were many different types when it came to Index and the nature of the powers that they held.**

**Yanagimoto Tadahisa: The design that most meets this guy who was the 'sub-boss' for Touma would have been Han Shinwoo from Noblesse. I think that this character was perhaps the one that I went out of my way to make it seem like they would have fit right in with MINUS given that they had piercings and the like but for the most part, if anything, he was the stereotypical character that has a high level power but wants to misuse it for his own purposes. For this alone, he was the perfect target for the classic Touma speech and again served as a nice warm up for Touma before fighting Matsura.**

**The CobraHound: An 'innocent' picnic for The Delta Force sounds like a great idea. I mean, what in the world could go wrong?!**

**Horizon Dreamer: A brilliant idea but I feel as though a body swap chapter for this would be a bit too crack. Then again, you could just do it from a different perspective if you like so that in itself would be a good thing to view right?! Although Suzushina Yuriko is definitely going to be making an appearance soon.**

**Darkness1st: And it's the one that made the request in the first place! You've had some thanks from some of the other readers so I only hope that you feel as though I did your idea justice and that you enjoyed it. Well I found the review where you asked for the idea, Chapter 21. ….Which I had posted back in February. Sorry for the wait then and I hope that it was worth it, both parts I mean. And I'm also glad to hear that you are still reading, your support is more than appreciated! As for the new idea, I'm not too sure whether or not I'll be able to do it. Currently, I've got up to Chapter 92 in terms of draft ideas for this project and many new people have asked for requests that I need to deal with as well. As a result for those doubling up, I'm not entirely too sure whether it's possible to do something again for them. Keep an open mind though however I apologise for any inconvenience.**

**Well? What did you think?**

**I think in terms of what was being sought after in this two-shot, I think it was achieved. As we can see this was basically a Zero Swap where two Level 0s with different lives swap them out for a day. I felt as though Hamazura's day would have been pretty standard and not really change much from how Touma has his days; after all the Delta Force is basically always discussing the stupid things that they do and it was all about incorporating Hamazura's point of view while at the same time giving the opinion of someone who has a girlfriend. All in all, for a particular point Hamazura's 'life' as Touma was something that I felt he would have been able to live had he had the presence of more boys around him and this was just him spreading his wings now that he had the chance.**

**In this sense, maybe Hamazura is the 'strongest' member of the new Delta Force that had formed? But in all seriousness, do you think that 100% leg and thigh is worth it? I'll leave that up to you. I've gotten people preferring breasts though which I think is a bit unrelated although perhaps relevant for a potential Interrogation II.**

**As for Touma, I felt as though this was a bit harder. I had already set the scene as 'lunch' in the previous chapter and unlike Hamazura I wasn't committed to one place. Instead I moved around a lot and for that only showed Touma's misfortune. Having ITEM's reactions to such then was the part that really got to me. Again though, while there was the aspect of the 'Swap' I really wanted to show that despite them changing 'lives' that at their core both Hamazura and Touma would be the same; Hamazura doing his stupid things and hating school and Touma facing misfortune wherever he goes.**

**Also, did you think I nailed the idea of Touma being a second Frenda and that they would have been a) the best of friends b) the worst of enemies or c) lovers? What with their fight scene happening a few chapters ago, it somehow feels relevant…**

**So, what did you think of this little swap? While for Hamazura, I wanted to sort of get across the fact that maybe Touma's life was pretty crazy outside of what Hamazura knows which then leaked into Touma's bit as well. After all, they both have their own lives and seeing how they would fit into each other's world and life is the point of this two-shot.**

**But at the same time I wanted to point out that maybe there were things that would have been the same in each other's life. Touma's misfortune and Hamazura imagining Takitsubo in pervy situations I think emphasises that. At this point then it becomes more about how others view them in the situation so seeing how Touma's classmates and ITEM reacting to their 'new' Hamazura/Touma is another part of this two-shot. Although we got more of the 'reaction' when it came to Touma to say the least but perhaps that comes down to my personal taste?**

**Overall though, I hope that you enjoyed this; seeing two different heroes in each other's lives and how others reacted to it as well.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please.**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**Having Hamazura on the ground with a nosebleed while Touma fights for his life somehow suggests that even though they 'swapped lives' trouble still follows them in the same way and nothing changes right? In the end, giving Touma a break is sort of an illusion for me and my stories isn't it?**


	40. The Problems with Seduction II

**Merry Christmas and I hope that you guys all have a Happy New Year! For the most part, this is a part of the usual double updates that I do with A Certain Unknown Level 0 for this period but I hope that the festive season will treat you well and that you come to enjoy whatever it is that you end up doing with your family or friends.**

**Also, in other news the double updates per week will probably end with these two chapters, mainly because I am going overseas for a month or so. I don't even think that I'll be writing let alone have the time to give you updates but in the end, it all depends on my schedule overseas and what happens. I hope though that you guys can enjoy this BTL regardless of this and look forward to the next one.**

**This was something that I promised to do a little while back but given everything that happened with me regarding this project and other things, it was put to the side. But to an extent, I'm glad to have finally put this up as another original.**

**This was originally put up by Agent Nine as a request, judging by the title you can tell which one it was however the focus that it ended up having was something that wasn't really what was wanted by Agent Nine. I've been trying to have chapters that didn't have Touma as the central focus, certainly the chapters where he doesn't appear or has little dialogue are those but it seemed as though when I tried to do it with this idea, Agent Nine accepted it but was looking for something a bit more.**

**Thus, here I am once more with an original and another part to The Problems with Seduction in order to more properly fulfil that request from so long ago. Sorry Agent Nine that it took so long but I hope that you are happy with what I have to put here after being unsatisfied last time.**

**And here is the Q &amp; A:**

**whwsms: The video that Tsuchimikado or Aogami might make would surely be confiscated by the Dark Side.**

**malandy: Thank you for your kind words again but remember that BTL stories, unless it is outright stated, are separate from that of ACUL0. But I'm glad someone remembers that in that story Touma was blacklisted from prison! That's surely going to bite him in the ass at a later stage.**

**seiker: Peaceful and uneventful when describing days for Touma reveals that there is going to be true suffering at a later stage. And perhaps we are all sadistic bastards. Wait until next chapter…. As for the next Rumour part, I've already gotten in written down, it's all about posting it up. As for your idea I'll definitely give it some thought but there is an idea that has already been suggested out there that I might do at a later stage.**

**AleisterCrowley: The Fukiyose chapters won't come out for a while… Come to think of it though, we don't know what Fukiyose's ability is do we?**

**Guest: No, left hand was correct as his right was trapped. Also, sorry for making the story a bit corny for you when it comes down to it. Hopefully things are less so when things progress along but that is only a wish that I have when it comes down to it.**

**pop2ww: Touma's misfortune decreasing is a lie in itself. It's nothing but an illusion! As for a Mugino arc within ACUL0, there is definitely one planned and I have the idea all down. It ALSO delves into the idea of what would have happened if Mugino met and had interacted with Touma prior to OT 15 so you'll also get your wish when it comes to that arc although perhaps not in the way that you are thinking about. And that 'first moment' IS going to be in ACUL0.**

**Since the Sisters arc had no OCs, only new mechs but they were described at the end of the chapter notes, I think I'll jump straight to Konori's arc and the OCs there. the main villain in the Sisters arc was the Researcher but he is a canon character, the scientist that had the gold tooth in the Sisters arc. See if you can find him but you'll need to watch Railgun S for that type of info.**

**Iwahashi Rina: I felt that Iwahashi was something like Aria from The Sacred Blacksmith. She was one of the first proper 'protagonist OCs' and as a result I wanted to make her look kind. While she is in Judgment, you have to remember that unlike MINUS she is not stained so much by inferiority and the like meaning that she has a definite 'easy' feel to her when compared to others OCs. She is pretty laid back and know her role and takes it easily but to the extent that she also knows that she has to be a role model for others in Judgment given her fame. But Aria in this sense is the biggest fit for her character.**

**Hagino Yoritomo: I based this guy off Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann although he would be younger, have more military style hair but just as muscular. Again, another OC I wanted to create a character that keeps Endo in line but also looks as though he has the part of such. Consequently, having a younger but at the same time more casual Kamina felt like the best fit given the nature of Endo and how he is as a person. I guess you can really see the difference in antagonist OCs and protagonist ones given that one is laid back and the other pretty stern looking…**

**Chojiro Wada: Being the first Lieutenant Generals introduced (I'll leave Hayashida for later as you will learn later), I based his design on Toto Sakigami from Deadman Wonderland but perhaps with a figure that is more based on authority. Given that he was the first 'leader' that was to be introduced I wanted to show that he meant business and gave that sense of authority in his face and clothes. Make him a lot sterner; remember he did lose an arm and as a result, you have to imagine how such a person would view the world especially when they are in an organisation like MINUS. That anger, resentment for the higher ups and the overall feel for him then needs to be shown in his face but otherwise he has a similar feel to Toto.**

**Before we begin though, I'd really like to thank four people.**

**The first naturally is my beta reader PokeRescue18. He's done a lot for more and I'm glad that he's stayed with me this entire time so I am in his eternal debt for it.**

**The second is of course, you the reader. Without you, I think that we would never have reached this far with the ONE-SHOTS. I mean, Chapter 40!? What in the world happened to this little project that I started in my spare time!? It's slowly turning into something that might have a 'main project' status but I want to avoid that.**

**Also I would like to thank Agent Nine. I said that I would do this and he has patiently waited for ages for this so I hope that he is pleased this time around in that I did it properly.**

**And finally, to someone that has helped me a lot with this project, malandy. While pop2ww was the one that made the cover image and gave it to me, malandy was the one that made the TVTropes page for this project and has put it up on said site as well as looking over and editing the TVTropes page for ACUL0. Both are things that I sincerely want to thank him for and if you guys ever have the need or want to update those pages, be my guest. But if anything, I really wanted to thank malandy for his hard work when it came down to it and this project.**

**And from me, the one thing that I want you guys to do is to enjoy this chapter to its fullest.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

Another Questionable Middle Schooler. _A_Hidden_Side_To_A_Known_War._

"презерватив."

"….What?"

"презерватив!"

"Pre…ze? What was that last bit?"

"It's pronounced 'prezervativ'!"

Two voices resounded through the snowy air of Russia as the older one of them, a spiky haired boy wearing fairly warm clothing looked incredulously at the younger, a small girl wearing clothes that seemed like a lacrosse type of uniform.

While the boy's clothes were seemingly more sensible, wearing a jacket with a warm scarf wrapped around him, the girl next to him was hardly the case. Sporting a miniskirt made those looking at her feel the cold themselves even though she was wearing a scarf and jacket herself. Still the lack of clothes near her legs only gave them the impression that she was freezing despite her having rather high socks.

Then again, for those that were worrying about the girl despite the situation, they must have been rather carefree.

After all, right now World War 3 was happening in Russia.

Many people who lived out historical events rarely thought of them as such. The people living in Germany during the events of World War 2 hardly thought that what they were experiencing would definitely be documented in the future; they merely wanted to survive. The same went for soldiers that went to war, they didn't consider themselves a statistic that would be talked about 30 years from the war but rather as a living, breathing human being that merely wanted to survive and fight.

As such for those normal people that wanted to do so, the only thought that they had upon looking at the duo (who were speaking Japanese of all things which technically made them the enemy as Academy City was the enemy of Russia) was that the girl would surely have been cold. Yet as they two of them conversed lightly, no one made an attempt to attack or threaten them despite the language that they were speaking.

No matter what anyone said, this was war.

A concept that everyone wanted to avoid, there was no point in trying to start conflict when there was none. The two people speaking Japanese were not attacking anybody nor did they seem hostile in anyway so as they said 'let sleeping dogs lie'. People moved around them, trying to get back to their own business as the events of war unfolded around them, processing what they needed to do and how they needed to do it.

Planning ahead and moving when the time was right was a basic survival skill naturally.

However, as was eating.

Which brings us to the scene our two Japanese speaking individuals had come across.

"Pre…zer?"

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! How did you even manage in England?! Are you stupid enough to think that the entire world is going to start speaking Japanese just because Academy City is the number one technology centre of the world? Chances are English over there is a compulsory course you know so you better get used to speaking other languages!"

"It's because of things like this that my attendance is basically walking on a tightrope! And besides do you really think that I have had time to study Russian since I got here? You only followed me while I hitchhiked here from England so there's been a lot that happened from that time to now!"

Kamijou Touma yelled that back at Lessar as the girl seemed to groan however realised something very basic as stars filled her eyes. She instantly grabbed the boy's hands within her own, eyes sparkling in a way that made Kamijou extremely nervous given what he had seen her personality was like during their time together.

This was simply because, for lack of a better word, Lessar's mind seemed to be in the gutter. Permanently.

If her mind had a day job, it would be a sewer worker; it was that dirty.

During their time together, Kamijou had had to put up with her constant sex jokes and innuendoes that honestly made him uncomfortable. More than once he had found himself staring at her chest or catching a glimpse of her panties without really wanting to and the way that she threw herself on him didn't really make the situation any better.

Not only that but she saw something dirty in practically everything Kamijou pointed out to her or asked her about in the country. Such a thing constantly made Kamijou worried for her mainly because not only was she an extremely pretty girl (Kamijou wasn't going to deny such) but while he was a gentleman, he knew plenty of people that would have liked to have taken advantage of her…. advances.

Still, he tried to pry his hands free from Lessar's grip in order to escape from what was surely going to be nothing but trouble however she held her grip tight and spoke with those sparkling eyes.

"S-So does that mean that you are indebted to me because we're only this far because of me dealing with the language barrier?!"

"Huh? W-Well I mean I do owe you for us getting here in the first place so in a sense – "

"To the extent where you'll do anything in order to make up the debt that you've incurred?"

"H-Hang on there, let's not get ahead of ourselves."

"ANYTHING?!"

"L-Lessar-san!? Your eyes are seriously starting to blind me with that glow! A-And where do you think you're reaching with your other hand while I'm distracted? Don't touch down there! That is a taboo! Taboo! For a healthy high school boy, a girl touching down there is a seriously bad idea! G-Get away! S-Somebody help me!"

Kamijou tried to escape from Lessar who was trying to undo the belt of his pants but it seemed as though the girl had other ideas, tackling the boy to the ground as she used both her hands in order to grab at the belt as the boy screamed and rolled around in the snow. The others that were accompanying them though merely watched on, seriously wondering what the hell the two of them were doing.

After all, it was not like they were merely wandering around the country where World War 3 was taking place without any objective in place either.

For better or for worse, Kamijou and Lessar were striving for a single goal. They had to reach the instigator of this entire war, Fiamma of the Right where Kamijou was going to challenge him for the sake of ensuring the safety of the one girl that he wanted to protect above all else; Index. She was currently being controlled by that bastard from God's Right Seat and the entire reason as to why Kamijou had walked into this hell was to face him head on and allow Index her freedom.

The two of them had come a long way ever since entering Russia.

They had saved an entire group of villagers, had infiltrated Fiamma's base, had gone to the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations, had encountered and witnessed the fight between Vento of the Front and Fiamma of the Right, had seen Sasha Kreutzev being taken away, had the broken form of Accelerator attack them, only to be defeated and had reached their present stage.

And now they were once more heading to Fiamma's base to bring the fight back to him. Imagine Breaker seemed to be the key that he needed and Kamijou was set on bringing it to him, however not in the way that the man probably hoped.

Kamijou Touma was set on showing Fiamma exactly what Imagine Breaker was by clenching it into a fist and slamming it into his face.

They had gotten assistance from the Elizalina Alliance in that effort, borrowing cars from them as to allow them transport to their required location. For the most part, Kamijou and Lessar were pretending to be brokers that smuggled people out and in of the country. For whatever reason, there seemed to be an influx of movement and while Kamijou did not fully understand the complexities of such he guessed it had something to do with WWIII going on. He made a mental note to ask Lessar about it later but while that was the cover that they had, with many other people from the Elizalina Alliance coming with them as to provide more credibility to the cover, the entire group had stopped in a town along the way to Fiamma's base.

As noted before, eating was a necessary skill needed for survival. As such, the trucks that held the 'brokers' had stopped in the town to gather food and this was where both Kamijou and Lessar were right now.

The worldwide fast food chain store was in front of them, automatic doors ready to be opened for the to-be customers however as Kamijou had started to head inside, the basic fact that he couldn't speak Russian and that it was unlikely the teenager at the counter spoke Japanese meant that he had to consult the only person that was willing to help him out.

Unfortunately, that had been Lessar.

He had asked her to teach him one word however his lack of knowledge of Russian languages meant that the pronunciation was something that he had difficulty getting across.

"Damn it! I just wanted some nuggets! Why is it so hard to get that across to you in a sensible way?"

"Oh? And are you referring to the 'nuggets' that you keep inside your pants?" asked Lessar with a cheeky grin as Kamijou truly felt as though his patience was teetering on a very fine line.

"Can you stop that?! Not everything that comes out of my mouth has a sexual context. And can you get off me? The snow is too cold!" Kamijou tried to wave the girl off without much energy behind the action as Lessar seemed to be rather shocked that he was doing so without really much energy. This resulted in some of the life within her body to retreat as her soul lifted into the air as Kamijou managed to push her off him and stand up.

He brushed himself down and looked at the girl that seemed awfully unenergetic for some reason as he frowned once again.

"So, nuggets in Russian is pre…pre… Huh? I've forgotten it already."

"презерватив! Sound it out using Japanese characters! Prezervativ! Pu-ri-zu-ba-chi-vu!" Lessar cried out as she phonetically gave Kamijou assistance by sounding out the Japanese characters involved in the word.

"Pu-ri-zu-ba-chi-vu. Pu-ri-zu-ba-chi-vu. Got it. So, what do you want?" asked Kamijou as he made his way inside the worldwide fast food chain store that he knew fairly well given that it was also in Academy City. The instant that he walked inside, the heating of the store hit him full force, giving him a light shock at the temperature difference.

Lessar though seemed unfazed as she walked behind the boy, having a look at the menu as they both stood in front of the counter, the person at the cash register looking rather upset that he was the one to deal with them given that the girl had tackled the boy in full view of him in front of the store without a thought to those watching.

Some of the customers were looking at Lessar and at Kamijou with suspicious gazes, especially given that they had been a part of the large group that had suddenly entered the store as well. Although the numbers that Kamijou and Lessar were travelling with were to add credibility to the cover that they were 'brokers' who smuggled people in and out of countries, the sheer numbers that they were travelling with added some intimidation to their group.

Lessar though either didn't notice or didn't care as she looked at the menu suspended over the counter.

"I don't know actually. I've eaten here a few times back when New Light was moving around the United Kingdom but I never actually thought to try everything."

"I've always wondered about that. Don't you have parents or whatever? I mean, surely there has to be someone worried about you when you travel around like you do. You say 'United Kingdom' like it's one place but it's many. Do you really travel around that much? Don't you have a set home to return to?" Kamijou asked out of curiosity however felt as though the question was valid.

While he in Academy City didn't really understand the problem with magicians and their parents, the fact was that the problem was there. Despite what Stiyl Magnus said and showed off his maturity by smoking cigarettes, he was only 14. Index was a little older but then a basic issue presented themselves.

Tsuchimikado Motoharu had told him that magicians were nothing more than kids with knives, children that had been betrayed by the world in such a way that in order to remedy unfairness, they had turned to magic. Each magician had a particular wish when they became such, caving that wish as their magic name which they used to drive their own actions. It served as their purpose and pushed them onwards as they kept their eternal wish close to their heart.

But if one turned to magic at such a young age, then what did that mean for the child that became a magician? Lessar had told him that she was in middle school or about that age, yet she had chosen to turn to magic for whatever reason.

Kamijou was not going to lie and say that he understood her reason for doing such but she had turned to magic. Not only that but she had been motivated enough to work for the UK that she had been involved in the events of British Halloween. A mere kid with a half-hearted wish would not have done so, making Kamijou realise that Lessar…. no, all magicians were entirely set on accomplishing the goal that they had carved into their hearts.

If that was the case, then how had the world betrayed them? What had they left behind in order to grasp the power known as Magic?

Kamijou had never heard anything about the parents of the magicians he knew. But now that he thought about it, that was strange. The parents of magicians had to have at least some influence upon the lives of their children but even so, the children had turned away from that and chosen to embrace magic.

What had made them choose to do so?

What had caused them to wish for something that the world could not provide?

And more importantly, _what had happened to their parents after they had chosen magic?_

Out of curiosity and without realising the thin ice he was treading on when it came to the issue Kamijou asked that question of Lessar. After all, since no one really said anything about the issue then it was probably something to be left alone but Kamijou asked that question of Lessar.

He didn't really have a reason for such in the end.

Or maybe he did; to get a little bit closer to the girl that had braved an entire World War and decided to follow him into the battlefield for her own reasons despite her personality.

Whatever Lessar said and acted like, there was no doubt that Kamijou Touma owed her one and trying to get closer to her, as a friend, was something that he felt he had to do in order to get to know how she worked as a person.

"Not really. My parents….well I'll let that issue lie where it is. _You really only should ask questions you want to know the answer to Kamijou Touma." _Lessar shot Kamijou a look that was hard to read however the tone of voice that she used only made a chill go up the boy's spine.

What had happened to her parents? And was it something similar with the rest of the magicians that he knew?

Kamijou realised that stopping tragedy full stop was impossible for a normal high school boy like him but hearing something like that from Lessar's mouth only made him extremely nervous. His mind instantly turned to the worst-case scenarios, numerous going through his mind as he suddenly felt a pang of guilt pierce through him.

He had acted on an impulse without realising the nature of the issue that he was dealing with and because of such he felt terrible for it. But even so, that horror at what was unspoken and left to the imagination filled his mind, swirling through and kicking up the darkness in its wake.

He gulped at the tone that Lessar was using as she blinked and spoke once again, that same cheery and cheeky tone of voice entering her voice once more as she grinned.

"Ah, don't worry about it. Whatever happened with my parents is my business. You can't be burdening yourself with the wounds of everyone in the world you know. Not even you can do that." Lessar said that with a soft smile as Kamijou looked at her.

"…Sorry. I…I didn't mean to pry. I just…."

"It's fine. I understood the intention behind it so it's nice to see you worrying about little old me and wanting to get closer. New Light sort of became a surrogate family for me though. Whatever you hear about cabals and how we work together to achieve some sort of goal, no matter how noble or terrible it is, when it comes to magicians, that cabal in itself becomes something like family. Some people might not care about the connections you forge there but if you stay with people long enough, you start to see them more than just 'people'." Lessar noted as Kamijou nodded in response.

"Yeah. I know how that feels."

Kamijou spoke honestly, thinking only of a nun in her habit as the example. After all, he had entered this war for the sole purpose of saving her. The time that they had spent together, the time that she had been by his side through thick and thin…. Although he had woken up as a 'transparent boy', the time that he had spent with Index had meant that he couldn't think of her as someone that was merely once connected to the previous 'Kamijou Touma'.

It might have been arrogant for him to think so but Index had become a part of his life. A part of his life that he wanted back more than anything.

She was more than the person the previous Kamijou Touma wanted to protect. The current one did as well and he sympathised with Lessar's point entirely, somehow feeling as though he had bridged the gap between the two of them in a way that he hadn't expected.

"Magic was my choice though and I don't regret it, whoever and whatever I get caught up in. Like you and this war, right? Entering it was your choice and you've made it this far. Whatever anyone says of you Kamijou Touma, you can look at that choice and proudly say that you did something that you can be proud of." Lessar said with a nod as Kamijou smiled at her.

"Thanks. That means a lot."

"Heh. No problem. I mean….. wait a minute. W-Were you asking about my parents so you could introduce yourself early in the relationship!? I-I never expected you to be so bold!"

Kamijou's image of the girl was instantly shattered as he stared at her with a dead expression in his eyes. He turned back to face the counter, a monotone filling his voice as he spoke.

"Yes. Whatever you say."

"W-Wait a minute, that type of response with no feeling behind it is the one that is going to freak me out the most! I can't actually tell if you're giving in to me or not. T-Tell me if my efforts to win you over to work for the UK were worth it! Tell me!"

"Yes, I was won over instantly by your charms."

"D-Damn it, if you want to play it like that then try this!"

Lessar suddenly grabbed Kamijou by the collar and jumped up, wrapping both of her legs around his back as her tail did the same, meaning that Kamijou was essentially giving her a piggyback from the front. She circled her arms around the boy's neck in the same fashion as a dangerous light entered her eyes, instantly making the dead expression in the boy's eyes revitalise itself as it understood what the girl was planning. Lessar licked her lips in a seductive way as the boy seemed terrified beyond belief as she spoke.

"Chance! I'll take this opportunity to take your first timeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

With that shout, Lessar instantly leaned forward to touch her lips against Kamijou's –

Only to feel the sensation of rough skin as Kamijou had managed to put up his hands in order to have her kiss his hand as it was placed in between his lips and hers. Kamijou stuttered in shock and surprise with a red face as many of the customers inside the store did the same thing, unable to process what in the world the girl was doing.

Were…those two an item? It was hard to say given the practically horrified expression on the boy's face and the expression of desire on the girl's however they instantly went back to eating their meals to not get caught up in the chaos even though their stares were more or less obvious at this stage.

"Waitwaitwait! H-Hang on there, Lessar-san! I have no idea what brought this on but can you at least explain why in the world you're trying to kiss me?! F-For a high school boy the prospect of a first kiss has to be earned through hard work, not in the line to a fast food restaurant! Are you trying to destroy my hopes and dreams!?"

"What about mine? My dream right now is to get you to join New Light or the United Kingdom through any means! So, you may as well give up right now!"

"That still doesn't explain why in the world you're choosing me as a target! Why me in particular? Do you have something against me or – And don't start going on the attack just because I start talking!"

Lessar tightened her grip on the boy as she pushed herself closer, a scary amount of desire within her eyes as Kamijou frantically tried to run away however with Lessar trapping him and making him unable to see which way he was facing, the only thing he could do was step backwards until he felt his lower back hit something.

He instantly felt the support of his upper back fall away, whatever he had hit was only something that reached up to his hips obviously. With nothing supporting him as he had backed away, he fell backwards as his upper back hit something hard. Without warning he suddenly found himself staring at the ceiling past Lessar as she approached once more, turning his head to the right and seeing the cash register there.

He had clearly fallen onto the counter of the shop however that in turn had meant that with him lying on the counter and with Lessar straddling him on top, it was open to a number of misunderstandings.

"Oh, so you want to play it like this do you? I don't mind being on top."

"Are you serious? Are you serious?! Do you have a one-track mind or something?! I just want some nuggets so suddenly bringing out this sort of attack makes no sense. Follow the chain, read the mood or something! Anything but this!" Kamijou complained as Lessar licked her lips looking up behind the counter as she narrowed her eyes.

"You're right…" Lessar said that in a slow tone as Kamijou felt his heart suddenly fill with hope. Had she seen the light? Had she learnt that since there was a literal war happening outside that he had neither the desire nor the time to be dealing with this sort of thing?

It confused him as to why Lessar had chosen _him _of all people to attempt to seduce to work for the United Kingdom. Firstly, they had only met during Carissa's coup d'état and he was pretty sure that nothing he had done or said would have led to this. Secondly, he was from Academy City so technically, working for a country that was halfway across the world was a geographical impossibility.

Thirdly, despite having a special right hand there was nothing in particular that stood out about Kamijou in his own mind. Yet she was still trying these sudden attacks that honestly pressed at his heart viciously. While Kamijou had maintained his self-control this entire time seeing Lessar go on the offensive time and time again for her own goals truly made him worry what in the world she was going to try next to 'enlist' his help.

So, when Lessar had admitted he was right, his heart filled with hope. Was this finally over and could he finally get back to ordering his nuggets?! He just wanted nuggets!

"Right?! S-So can you please get off me so we can order our fo – "

"I've heard that boys in Japan have fantasies of licking chocolate sauce off the bodies of young girls. We're in a fast food restaurant that has plenty of resources for fetishes like that. Licking chocolate sauce off my body, covering my body with whipped cream, using grease as a lubricant, there are endless possibilities!"

Kamijou wondered why he had even hoped in the first place as tears started to run down his eyes.

The part time worker at the cash register slowly backed away, unable to determine what to do in this situation. While there were plenty of work health and safety issues as well as procedures on how to deal with customers that felt as though they were God and had to be listened to, there was nothing in the manual that spoke of how to deal with an overly vicious girl and a boy that clearly wanted no part of anything.

Not to mention that the former was straddling the latter on the countertop.

The employee would have been more surprised if there WAS protocol for dealing with this sort of thing but the current situation had left him (and the other customers) in the role of bystander as he could only process what was going to happen next despite not having any idea what the girl was planning.

Kamijou though, with a frantically beating heart at the suggestions that Lessar had made only shook his head.

"Where did you hear that?! Not every high school boy has a mindset that you get from reading manga! There's no way that I'm doing any of that! Do you actually think that chocolate sauce has any type of eroticism to it? If you put that on your body, you'd be left with nothing but stickiness and only push boys away from you! The same goes with whipped cream. Being seductive by covering yourself with junk food is nothing but an illusion! And what was that last one!? Why do you even think I would need a lubricant!?"

"Well if you're fine with doing it here…."

"That's not what I meant! G-Get off me! Get off me!" Kamijou struggled however Lessar only increased the pressure that was on top of him, causing the boy on the countertop to suddenly shift backwards. He found his head suddenly upside down, over the edge of the countertop and leaning over the employee's side.

"H-Hey, I'm gonna fall. I'm gonna fall!" Kamijou cried out in fear of the small drop that he was about to engage in, something that if it happened with Lessar on top of him was probably not going to end well.

"Don't worry," Said Lessar casually as Kamijou felt her tail suddenly caress along his back in a way that caused chills to run up his spine as Lessar licked her lips. "I want privacy just as much as you do."

"Why all of a sudden have you increased your aggressiveness tenfold!? And from the way that you've attacked me like this, I have a hard time believing that you want privacy!" Kamijou shouted as Lessar suddenly shifted herself forward so that with Kamijou underneath her, he shifted backwards.

"I'm sure that there are some toys meant for children underneath the bench there. You'd be surprised what they can be used for….~!"

"I'm sure I would! Can we leave it at that?! You haven't changed your ways at all! Wh-When this luckless-with-women Kamijou-san gets attacked like this how in the world am I supposed to react?"

For the first time since Lessar had started her unreasonable advances upon the boy her expression fully changed, turning into one that was both shocked and angry at the way that the boy had spoken. She instantly pulled away from trying to steal the boy's first kiss as he looked at her however her bangs were covering her eyes.

There was a small silence that lasted only a second before she spoke, doing so in a soft tone at the boy that was beneath her.

"H-How are you supposed to react? Is that seriously your question?" Lessar trembled as she spoke, twitching slightly as she looked down at the boy that was below her. Something in her tone made Kamijou go on guard as she put a hand to her chest yet showed a facial expression that Kamijou could not have guessed would have come from her given what they were doing.

And that was the edges of her eyes were showing small droplets of water, as if she were on the verge of crying.

Kamijou had no idea what in the world had brought on this absolute change in behaviour however the change in the girl's behaviour was not the only one, her voice suddenly shouting out with what seemed to be desperation as she spoke.

"Do you feel nothing when I do this? Is your heart seriously closed off to the possibility of me offering myself up to you?" Lessar asked however there was something in her tone that suggested that she wasn't joking in the slightest. While she had been very vocal in trying to win over the boy, it seemed as though right now Lessar was doing something more than that.

She was asking the question in a serious matter, not posing the question to determine her position but rather her worth. For better or for worse, Lessar had decided that she was going to throw herself onto Kamijou Touma for the intentions of making him work for the UK. Whatever reasons she saw in such were her own and the method that she had chosen was to seduce him into working for her own goals.

While that in itself was questionable, the fact was that Lessar had chosen to offer herself up to Kamijou. And time and time again, he had rejected her advances.

Kamijou opened his mouth to respond as he always did however the way that Lessar stared at him with the corners of her eyes watering slightly made him think twice about blowing her off as he usually did. There was something else here that Lessar was looking for, not the usual response that Kamijou always gave. She was looking for a proper answer to her question, to satisfy her doubts.

After all, when looked at a particular perspective, what had Kamijou been doing?

Lessar was throwing herself onto him and he was brushing her off as if nothing was amiss. He ignored her attempts to seduce him and if more than anything, he found them rather annoying. While from his and Lessar's perspective this was him brushing off her attempts to make him work for the UK, from an outsider's perspective what would it have looked like?

Would it have looked like a girl that seemed awfully knowledgeable about sexual things throwing herself onto a boy?

Or would it have looked like the boy was pushing her away, stating that she wasn't worth his time despite her many attempts to get him over to her side? She had thrown herself at him time and time again but never had he given her a proper answer of 'I don't want you', instead only complaining and pushing her away.

What would that have looked like to Lessar? How would that have harmed her self-confidence?

While she was rejected in her advances to the boy, Kamijou Touma had always turned her away on the assumptions that they were nothing but a short-term thing, going to fade away as Lessar eventually lost her goal of seducing him. Her out-going personality was not something he wanted changed about her but it was something that she could have addressed here and now when it came to particular things.

But still.

Had Kamijou ever given her a real answer? Had he sat down and told her the reasons why he didn't want to join the UK, why he couldn't accept her advances and why he didn't want to act on the suggestion Lessar posed to him?

Lessar had asked him if he felt nothing. She had asked him if he had closed off the possibility of her offering herself up to him.

The truth was though; he did feel something. And possibly there was some part of Kamijou's heart that would have accepted her advances and screamed at Kamijou to accept them; he was not going to deny that at all. After all, he knew himself that Lessar was definitely a pretty girl and her outgoing nature especially when it came to her goals was partially an inspiration to see in how she strove forward despite herself.

But when considering their positions, not as magician and Imagine Breaker but as Lessar and Kamijou Touma, the boy could not accept the advances of the girl.

"Lessar….I…"

"Do you truly think of me as nothing? Do you truly think of me as hopeless for wanting to win you over so you can join the UK?"

"No! I would never do that!"

Despite himself, Kamijou found himself shouting, surprising Lessar and everyone that was inside the store at the sudden change in the atmosphere that had occurred. Still, he kept his eyes fixated on the girl, ignoring everything around him as he forced himself to give Lessar what she needed.

A proper answer.

"It's just….. I can't act on this. I can't act on what you are offering me." Said Kamijou as he averted his eyes while Lessar was sitting on top of him. Her entire face contorted itself into a sneer as she blurted out the next words with venom however at the same time Kamijou detected that there was perhaps some loss contained within.

"Is this the whole 'It's not you, it's me' speech?" Lessar could not contain her cynicism as Kamijou gave a chuckle that was neither filled with joy or happiness. It was entirely hollow and he felt sick that he gave it however it was the only thing that he could do before responding seriously.

"No. It's actually you."

Lessar's eyes went wide as she received that response, the shock visible on her face.

"What?"

"What are even doing Lessar? I get that you want me to work for the UK. I get that. And I get that you've chosen this…. method of making me do so. But… where in this method lies the girl known as Lessar? I've seen you throw yourself at me and let me tell you, seeing a girl do so makes me happy. I've never had anyone do that for me before in this way and I'm not going to lie; part of me wants to give in to your demands. I'm not a saint and I know that if something is going to result in no physical pain for me, I'll go for it instantly. But…" Kamijou averted his gaze away from her as he continued.

"I can't act on what you are giving me. You're throwing yourself at me and I want you to stop but the reason for it isn't because I can't accept you. I DO accept you. And _that's _the reason why I can't accept what you're doing."

Lessar looked at the boy with a lack of comprehension as she wiped away the tears forming at the edges of her eyes.

"What... do you mean?"

"You've followed me all this way. You went from England all the way to Russia for the sole purpose of following me. You rescued villagers with me. You've entered hell with me. And this entire time when we're facing what could be the biggest threat to the entire world, you've stuck by my side. And you expect me to just give in when you throw yourself at me? How… how can you expect me to do that Lessar?! I respect you too much! I'm not going to give into these desires that I might have within my heart just because we both have consent!"

Kamijou found his own voice rising as he turned his head back to Lessar now, seeing that her entire face was somewhat red now that he had made a proper confession of his feelings for the girl.

"That's right! I respect you too much! We'll struggle, we'll fight and most of all we'll charge into this fray together! But Lessar, no matter what has happened, will happen or is going to, you've charged into this with me together. I don't give a damn about this 'Kamijou Faction' that you mentioned. But for me, you're the one that joined me when I thought I was alone. And you expect me to just give into something that you want based on that? Especially when it concerns your own body? How can I do that?! There's no way! I respect you too much!"

"You…respect me?" Lessar asked however it seemed as though the answer that she received was not to her satisfaction, clear in how she bit down on her lip as she spoke. "And that's why you won't accept my advances? That's a poor reason in comparison to why I _truly _am throwing myself at you."

This time it was Kamijou's turn to be surprised as his eyes went wide at the sudden revelation.

"Your true reason for throwing yourself at me?" he asked as Lessar chuckled this time. And just like Kamijou's chuckle before it was hollow and lacking in any joy or happiness, perhaps a reflection of the scene that the two of them found themselves in; a scene where they could only be honest and have no form of lies between them.

Lessar nodded and looked down at the boy with eyes that Kamijou could not turn away from.

And she spoke, forming words that resounded through the air.

"I love you."

Kamijou Touma blinked.

His mind took the three words, allowing the sounds that they made to turn into physical ones that appeared in his mind's eye. That in turn was something that was processed, those three words travelling through his entire brain, sending off numerous electrical impulses as his entire body received reactions that were generated by him hearing those three words.

His head turned, his mind processed, his heart beat and his breathing slowed.

But above all, Kamijou Touma's face went entirely red from the confession that had been given to him.

He had complaints about the location it was made in; in the middle of a World War, in a fast food restaurant where the girl confessing was straddling him. It went entirely past what he had expected his first confession to be like (although he had long dashed any hopes of that yet that small hope still remained) but all of those complaints were shattered by the three words said.

His mouth opened as he tried to formulate words in response to what Lessar had said however his entire brain was still in the middle of processing what Lessar had said.

She…loved him?

It was entirely out of left field and there were hardly any hints towards that conclusion but he couldn't deny what Lessar had just said. Could it be that the true reason that she had followed him all this way to Russia and threw herself at him was because she loved him? It was certainly possible but for Kamijou excuses formed within his mind that immediately tried to discount that very idea.

He had misheard her.

That excuse was immediately rejected. There was no way that he was going to tread on her confession by saying 'What did you say?' like some bastard that didn't care for her feelings.

He was in the middle of saving Index.

So what? That had nothing to do with Lessar's feelings and the two girls were entirely separate. Thinking of Index right now when Lessar was confessing to him regardless of Index was selfish and harmful to Lessar.

They had only met practically two weeks ago during the British Halloween.

So what? People fell in love at first sight and love had been formed on the basis of smaller things.

Other excuses filled Kamijou's mind as he tried to process what was being said yet he shot them all down. In the end, he only came to one single conclusion after all of those had been shot down by his own weak human heart.

And it was the one that had been presented to him from the very beginning.

Lessar, the magician from New Light loved –

"CHANCEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I'll take this moment that you are distracted and take your first timeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Lessar suddenly blinked away the tears on the edges of her eyes, her blushing face faded and that mischievous and familiar light entered her eyes once more as Kamijou felt as though an illusion that he had always wanted had been shattered into a million pieces.

"Wait…"

Lessar dove towards the boy as he was sitting on the countertop.

"Hang on a minute there…"

Her lips descended for Kamijou's however the boy didn't go red in the face as he instantly shot both hands out from his side and grabbed Lessar's face in both of his hands.

"YOU WERE JOKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG?!"

"Huh?" Lessar asked that question as she found her head unable to move as it was crushed within the iron grip of Kamijou who suddenly had rather bloodshot and frantic looking eyes. All in all, the boy was rather scary looking as a cold sweat seemed to cover all of Lessar's body. For some reason, she gulped and truly felt as though the horror of all horrors in this war was the one in front of her.

If Fiamma of the Right had to deal with this, then the war would be over. Of that Lessar was sure and she knew that any lie that she told would immediately be discovered as she slowly averted her gaze within the boy's grip and tried to whistle in a nonchalant manner.

"N-No, I did mean it when I said I loved you."

"Lessar."

Kamijou spat out her name with venom as she turned back to face Kamijou, her eyes darting in all directions as to avoid looking at his face. While she had wanted to take advantage of his nature by asking him a question that would have made him rethink how he was treating her, only to blurt out a confession with the hopes that she would take his first kiss and have him be bound to her as a result, she hadn't expected her false confession to be taken _this _badly.

She sweated rather profusely, trying to think of a way out of the predicament that she was in before doing the only thing that came to mind.

"Tee hee."

She made a cute face in the attempts to soften Kamijou's mood however that in itself only made the boy's eyes burn with a rage that Lessar didn't know he had.

"So…..are you telling me….that the confession that you made was nothing more than smoke and mirrors to get me to let down my guard? That you were having nothing but crocodile tears? That you don't really love me?"

"N-Now let's talk about this…"

Lessar suddenly found herself in the defensive role as she tried to look away from Kamijou's face that was getting closer and closer. This reversal of position was something that she expected from Bayloupe but seeing it from Kamijou only made Lessar think that the boy had hidden potential that he never showed.

While this gave her more reason to bring him over to the UK and thus more reasons to seduce him, she felt as though telling him such would hardly be well received now.

"D-Did I cross the line with that confession?" Lessar asked nervously.

"Did you cross the line? Did you cross the line?! **DID YOU CROSS THE LINE!?"**

"Y-You said it three times with the last time in caps and bold?! I-I didn't think it would be that serious!"

"Hehehehehehe….Lessar-chan. You clearly don't understand the mental process of a normal high school boy such as myself. It's our dream in life to get a confession from a girl. A proper confession. It's one of life's trophies that you can proudly brag about to your friends. So, when you toy with my heart like this, I'm not so sure that I can take it so much. This Kamijou-san feels as though for you to learn your lesson, you need to be properly punished. Are you prepared?" Kamijou said as he slowly sat up, keeping Lessar's head in his hands as she started to seriously worry at this point.

"Huh? What are you doing? Seriously though?! OK, OK, I get that maybe this time I went a bit too far but how is that even possible? I've showed you my panties and this is what you react to?!" Lessar pointed out something that was better left unsaid as the people that understood Japanese inside the restaurant went a little red faced.

"I was serious about respecting you as well."

"Y-You were serious about it? W-Wow, I really feel bad now. I'm really, really sorry for playing with your heart like that. But hang on, isn't that bad for me who you are always rejecting?!" Lessar was confused herself about what she was feeling. While she had managed to cry crocodile tears and pretend to blush the fact that Kamijou had been serious when he said that he respected her gave her an oddly warm feeling.

She was trusted. She was seen as a friend and ally and Kamijou Touma had said that he respected her for that very fact. Despite constantly saying that she was only with him to advance her own goals, that respect had formed for the boy and partially, Lessar also felt as though she respected the boy as well, in her own way.

While she felt as though she tried a bit harder to seduce Kamijou than her usual targets (something that was perhaps a reflection of this respect), the fact of the matter was that right now, the boy was truly going to punish Lessar for messing with his heart.

In fact, right now he had managed to sit up entirely and had twisted Lessar's body over his knee so that while sitting on the countertop, she was draped over his knee like a naughty child. This position only held one thing for Lessar as her eyes turned into dots.

"Hang on there. Why are you the one suddenly getting aggressive!?"

Lessar shouted that out to Kamijou who looked down at her with red eyes, demon horns rising from his head and breathing out a miasma like substance that floated in the air. In essence, the position that Lessar was in only meant one thing: she was about to receive a grand spanking across the boy's knee.

"This. Is. Your. Punishment!"

"I-I'm actually sort of OK with this! Right Kamijou Touma! Embrace your inner sexual drive! I don't mind being spanked by – Ow?! You're hitting pretty hard there but I don't mind! Ow! OW?! OK, hang on there, just a little bit to the le – OW?! This is perfect! Have I finally gotten the points that I need to get into your heart?! Ow?!"

"REFLECT ON YOUR ACTIONS!"

"WHATEVER YOU SAY DEAR! GIVE ME MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

It was an odd scene to say the least as while Kamijou Touma delivered the much-deserved punishment to the girl that played with his heart, Lessar on the other hand didn't seem to be reflecting on her actions at all.

In this sense, it was questionable whether it was punishment or pleasure but nobody watching felt as though they should read or think too much into it.

* * *

But there was still the final issue to deal with!

"So?! Did you feel aroused after touching my ass so many times?! Huh!? Did you!? You want to join New Light and work for the UK for real now right?!"

"DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING AT ALL?!"

"I won't make any false confessions from now on. Promise. But seriously, do you want to join New Light and work for the UK for real now?!"

"No!"

"So, in the end you grabbed my ass how many times and felt nothing?!"

Lessar was the one that suddenly felt as though her heart had been pierced as she staggered to the ground but Kamijou didn't even give her a second glance as he stared at the final obstacle. Said obstacle, the part time worker of the cash register at the fast food restaurant Lessar and Kamijou were at, could only tremble in the face of the boy that had caused so much chaos and the girl next to him that seemed to have her soul leave her body in response to Kamijou's rejection.

Yes.

Kamijou Touma and Lessar had come here for one reason and one reason only.

For food.

While Kamijou felt as though he had been through a bit too much by having his heart ripped to shreds by Lessar and her false confession which was for her own ends, he still did as he felt he always had to. He took another step forward and continued down his path as he would always do, ready to tackle the next obstacle for the day.

And he did so by walking up to the counter and gulping.

He only knew one word in Russian. Well two technically but he doubted he would get very far with the Russian version of 'Yes'; да.

He knew the pronunciation of the word he needed: nuggets in Russian, according to Lessar was 'презерватив', being the only proper Russian word that Kamijou knew. He gulped, sounding out the characters inside his head as he spoke in Russian although shakily, having not being used to what he was saying.

"Pu-ri-zu-ba-chi-vu." Kamijou said, sounding out the individual characters as the part time worker looked at him curiously, although still nervously.

"помилование?"

Kamijou had no idea what in the world the boy in front of him said however from the confused expression on the boy's face, it was clear that Kamijou had not managed to say the word right. Clearing his throat, and feeling rather embarrassed as well, Kamijou repeated himself, trying to get the accent right as well as the letters.

"презерватив."

It wasn't perfect at all. However, Kamijou still felt a small bit of pride rise in himself in that he got the word mostly right as he stared at the boy at the counter who had gone white in the face. His mouth was open and he looked as though he had been hit in the face with a wet fish. Kamijou frowned and turned around, seeing that the other customers in the restaurant were looking at him with similar faces although some of them were glancing at Lessar, back to him again, before going red faced and looking at Kamijou as though he were the scum of the earth.

Kamijou blinked again, not understanding really what was going on as he turned back to the part timer and repeated himself.

"презерватив."

This time the boy's reaction was much more visible as he seemed to flinch backwards, taking a step back as he looked at Kamijou. The spiky haired boy frowned however was drawn away from looking at the part timer by the sudden sound of crying, seeing that one of the women at the tables had burst into tears at Kamijou's pronunciation of the word.

His Russian hadn't been that bad…had it?

Thinking that the language barrier was something that had to be overcome no matter what so that he could get his nuggets, Kamijou Touma steeled his resolve and spoke once more however the hesitation was clear in his voice.

"презерватив?"

"ты больной ублюдок." The part timer said, with his face contorted in disgust as he spat on the ground next to him.

If anything suggested that something was wrong, it would have to have been that. Kamijou frowned at the action, truly not understanding what the issue was. All he wanted was some nuggets, so he had asked Lessar for the Russian equivalent of….nuggets…..

Kamijou suddenly went pale as he realised his mistake.

He had asked _Lessar_.

Slowly he turned his head to face the girl on the floor that looked up at him with a cheeky grin as Kamijou managed to form the words.

"Lessar-san…. what word did you teach me? It wasn't nuggets, was it?"

"Remember about asking questions you don't want the answer to? W-Well I don't think it will really improve your opinion of me at this stage but we have to overcome these obstacles so that I can win you over!"

"I'm amazed that you think you can still continue that but what have I just said three times without realising it? Wh-What have I been asking this restaurant for exactly?"

A nervousness entered his tone as Lessar slowly stood up, brushed herself off and cleared her throat. She grinned and placed both of her hands on her hips and spoke.

"Would it help if I said I taught you the word 'condom'?"

Kamijou felt his mouth go wide open at that. Some part of him exploded and he felt as though he had lost all the right to live as he suddenly understood the reactions of those around him.

The white face of the part timer, the glances between him and Lessar with the shocked and red faces, the flinching, the crying woman and the spitting on the ground.

It was all because he had asked for a condom three times.

The universe exploded and Kamijou slowly formed the words as his mind caught up to what was being processed internally.

"So….are you saying…that the only proper Russian word I know…means condom? And that I just asked for it three times to which most of the people here think I am some sick bastard?" Kamijou said that with a dark tone as he trembled while Lessar put a finger to her chin.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm… Pretty much."

The reaction that Kamijou had to that needed no explanation as he hung his head.

"Such misfortune." This however was immediately changed as he stared at the instigator for all of his misunderstandings and suffering upon entering the restaurant.

"LESSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!"

"Are we going for Round 2 of the spanking?!"

Lessar immediately turned and ran out of the automatic doors, Kamijou Touma trailing behind as he chased her through the snow despite the fact that the latter tripped a few times and ended up covered in it. However, despite the misunderstanding only being between the two of them the misunderstanding that the chase created (that being of the sick spiky haired boy trying to capture the girl that clearly didn't want any part of his fantasies because of the way she was running) meant that the occupants of the restaurant could not let this go.

With a roar, they all chased after Kamijou with the intentions of saving the imp-like girl while Kamijou chased Lessar with the intentions of giving her a proper lecture about the proper way to do things in the world.

All in all, when looking at the scene as a whole, Lessar truly had to think that the boy's misfortune meant that it was unlikely that they were going to get any food soon.

* * *

**So what did you think?**

**Agent Nine, I hope that I met your request properly this time. You wanted Lessar antics with Touma, here we are. I hope that you enjoyed them and laughed a bit during some of the parts.**

**For these types of chapters, there is very little to go 'past'. I mean, we know that Lessar wants to seduce Touma to get him to join the UK so the whole point that I had to try was to get that across in a new way while at the same time not crossing a major line that I felt exists. I mean, I could have Lessar say that she would strip naked and have go down to her bra and panties but to avoid this going into the 'M' rating, I couldn't really go past that. So with that limitation in mind, I made this chapter. I hoped that you enjoyed it.**

**Novel wise and chronologically, this goes in between OT 20 and OT 21. In the beginning of the latter, we suddenly have Lessar and Touma snacking on some burgers and nuggets so I sort of wanted to know "How did they get those?" This idea formed and there we are. I felt as though this was something that had to be conveyed as part of 'Between the Lines' as a story; it is things that happen either alternately or in between parts that leave you going 'I can see that happening!'.**

**This is the major challenge then for this story unlike A Certain Unknown Level 0 which is my own storyline, as this has to incorporate parts of the canon sometimes so I hope that you enjoyed it.**

**Originally, this was going to be nothing more than just 'Lessar screwing with Touma' but along the way I started to think "Hang on. Since Touma acknowledges himself as not being perfect and having sexual desires, then why does he reject Lessar?". My first impression is that she's too aggressive and while that may be a part of it (as well as Lessar being underage), I also felt as though that respect that he has for her is a major part of it. I'm not saying that Touma if he had no respect for her would go for it and embrace Lessar putting herself out there but for Touma right now during WWIII, he definitely has a lot of respect for her and thus doesn't want to act on his own desires (if he has any) in order to not trample on that.**

**It's kindness and just as Kamijou said 'it's her' that he doesn't act. Lessar joined him, went to war with him and accompanied him to Russia to satisfy her own goals. Looking at that, simply because she is 'Lessar' he cannot act in a way that allows himself to take her as his own.**

**Mind you though if he did, this would be a lemon. And that's territory I'm staying FAR away from.**

**Still I hope that you liked Lessar's false confession. I've written the scene that it can be interpreted both ways if you like. While you can say "Lessar was acting and did a false confession" you could also interpret the scene as being "Lessar is being honest but prioritises her chance to take advantage of Touma first over her feelings in the moment." She never out rightly states "I was lying when I confessed" but does so in a roundabout way so it appeals for those of you who think Lessar is best girl hopefully. After all, the best lie is that which has a fraction of truth behind it right?**

**Regardless though I hope that you enjoyed the entire chapter and realised that there can be many problems with seduction. If Touma got anything out of the experience, it was mastery of a Russian word he probably doesn't need. I also suggest to those of you learning Russian that you don't use this word in a conversation.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please.**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**….Technically this chapter was the first 'confession' I did to Touma. Surprising that it was Lessar wasn't it? I hope though that you enjoyed his thought process of the entire thing despite it being nothing more than smoke and mirrors and his reaction. Hopefully it was in character for the both of them!**

**And before the year ends one more thing!**

**Merry Christmas and Have a Happy New Year. Thanks for sticking with me all of this time and being patient too!**

**Mr Question Mark**


	41. The Silent Screams

**THE FOLLOWING CHAPTER IS M RATED FOR ADULT THEMES AND BLOOD.**

**….That was pretty heavy to start the New Year with for Between the Lines. Yet here we are! Before we start, I want to wish everyone that is reading this a Happy New Year and I hope that whoever you spent it with, it was eventful for you in the long run. Here's to another year and whether it is good or bad, we will see at the end of it shan't we?! Hopefully you had a good one!**

**I'll be doing weekly updates again (as much as possible) given that I'm back from my holiday to Japan as the double updates sort of destroyed me when it came to proof reading and the like. Hopefully this is accepted and that you guys can look forward to what is to come regardless. Sorry for that decision to those that enjoyed the double updates but….yeah…..real life and stuff.**

**As you can see from the start of this chapter, don't expect sunshine and rainbows. Back when I started this project, you might recall the summary had 'light hearted one-shots' in it. However, when I wrote CONS and The Experiment, Darkbetrayer (you guys probably know him for his work A Certain Infinite Possibility) suggested to me that maybe I should change it to just 'one-shots' because those chapters were not light hearted.**

**As for the idea that I have here, the suffering in both of those chapters pales in comparison. Hence the M rating. Although technically this features what I believe to be the best girl in Raildex…. SUFFERING!**

**No matter what anyone says, TOUMA X SUFFERING is the true pairing. Hopefully this chapter will show that to you but in all seriousness….. I kind of drew out my inner sadist for this one. Quite seriously. And this is ME saying that. I put Touma through his paces here so reader beware.**

**I feel as though this chapter isn't something that can be termed as 'good' or 'bad' (but you are free to think of it like that) but rather as something to contemplate on. While you can leave a review saying "I loved/hated this chapter!" I sort of want you to look at this chapter and think to yourself "…Wow. Touma went through that didn't he?" and make your judgments based on that.**

**Reviews are wanted and appreciated but if anything, I want you to consider that very question as you read this please. There might be spoilers there in this note but by all means, scroll down and continue reading please.**

**Despite that though, let's get this started! This was actually another request and I hope for the most part that you look forward to this one.**

**The request this time comes in from wildarms13 who asked:**

Yo man, been an avid fan of your work, though been reading your fics for the past years, i was being very lazy in commenting. Since your works are always superb, got nothing to say really, except thanking you for your works

Thank you very much for your hard work along with PokeRescue18. you never cease to amaze me each and everytime ACUL0 and BTL updates.

Since people are suggesting stories here and there, uhm here's my part:

How bout something dark. I mean, this just came out of nowhere, but how bout the setting would be after NT10, somewhere in between NT11. While touma is recovering on the hospital, some of the characters (magic side or science side, or both. i'll leave it to you) would have a dream about touma when he was experiencing the infinite hell battle with othinus. What i wanted to see is that how each of the character would respond to the pain and suffering touma is experiencing and the only thing they could do is watch. But after they wake up, they would only be crying but won't remember anything of the dream.

Well, i know it's a little dark but give it some thought author-san xD

**There are a few things that I want to note about this before we begin though. The first is that I INTEND ON COVERING THIS AT SOME POINT IN A CERTAIN UNKNOWN LEVEL 0! Sure, that might be a spoiler but I'm just putting this out there so that you can expect something of this nature perhaps in a larger extent in another medium. Although I have no idea how dark it will be.**

**The second thing I want to say is that I sort of covered this in my Future fic however wasn't really delved into meaning that I am completely game to do something like this. HOWEVER, I do have to note wildarms13 that this story has been done by someone in a similar fashion.**

**Although this is only a one-shot, the project you should check out if you want a bit more of this would be 'It's Our Turn to Save You' by Xcalated. It's pretty good and covers the point well (more of the Omega World and its repercussions) so if you are unsatisfied, try checking out their work to see if it suits your fancy a bit better.**

**Right, well let's get this show on the road (a show that I wanted to cover in ACUL0 at some point but who cares?! Doing it here suits me fine!) but I would like to do the usual Q &amp; A before we begin.**

**malandy: I loved your review when the whole 'reactions as you went along' sort of feel. You had me cracking up the entire time as I looked at things in hindsight as you were reading so I want you to know that this was enough of a Christmas present for me! I can't remember much about Stiyl and his SS with Patricia to be honest though… I was surprised though that you noticed the trick with the Russian though as you were going along. And you were definitely right when it came to Index there!**

**seiker: Well it's my understanding that you don't have to be Christian to celebrate and enjoy Christmas. I'm not too picky though and love getting stuff so I'm not complaining! Well I'm not too surprised that you figured the word was dirty before it was revealed, it IS Lessar after all and generally with all languages, the first thing that you pick up are the swears, the greetings and the dirty words. A 'not so healthy' high school life is probably 'heathy' though in other ways….Ah, adolescence. Don't worry though, Itsuwa and Misaki support is definitely in my camp! Still not Kamachi though but was the confession fake~? And thank you for wishing me luck overseas, it was pretty fun over in Japan and a great cultural experience.**

**Agent Nine: Of course I remembered! I DID kind of stuff up the original so hopefully this suit you a lot better. Real confessions for Touma from me are going to be a territory I want to slowly get into so hopefully when it comes around, you are pleased. As long as you enjoyed it though and felt that the original request was satisfied.**

**pop2ww: I'm glad that you noted that there were no stripping scenes last chapter even though it was Lessar (well not ENTIRELY) as I felt that that would be lazy and an easy way out when given Touma's ability with words, I felt that Lessar could jump on that ship easy! Hence all of the wordplay and the innuendos. And given that it was a language barrier that was causing all of the trouble, it felt right to have it as it was. If Lessar though had confessed earlier, that would have been WAY more difficult to manage and pen down. Although as long as you felt that Touma's reaction was something that was believable from his perspective then that in itself is more than enough for me. I go for characterisations and keeping characters in character so going for that type of response where I could grasp who Touma was and also provide a proper 'answer' was extremely difficult. A-As for the feels….**

**Falcon (I'll be dealing with each of the members of Harmonia's Cradle with their respective arcs so I'll be dealing with just Falcon here and next few chapters go into the other characters as well.): This character mainly looked like Hisoka from Hunter x Hunter. I designed him to be a man that acted and dressed more a child to give himself the impression that he didn't really lose what he actually did so making him act more like a child was his way of dealing with his loss when it came to his divorce. So while you can imagine Hisoka, imagine perhaps a man that is clearly in his 20s but also trying to act and wear things that a teenager would. The dying of his hair, the tattoos and his overall attitude then was part of the whole attempt to create more 'human villains' and that was reflected in his backstory and the illusion that was destroyed in that arc. Afterwards though, with his illusion destroyed, I want you to sort of imagine that he lost the dye and became a bit more mature in order to reflect that he does want to change and get back what he lost after everything despite his mistakes. Given that, Falcon perhaps changed into an adult after a punch from Touma so imagine that progression: the man-child as it were into more of the adult that his character is.**

**FreakFactor: Lessar: the embodiment of kinkiness. I'm glad that you were entertained though and I hope you felt that I got the right type of entertainment you were looking for.**

**And finally, the thanks.**

**The first, my beta reader PokeRescue18 for his great work proofreading this and working through it for errors.**

**The second, you the reader for you have been the one to sit through this the entire time and work through the works with a determined stance and focus.**

**And finally, wildarms13 who provided this idea. I've wanted to cover it for a while in ACUL0 but hey, trying it out and experimenting here before actually doing it in my main project is all the more fun right? It'll help me get it right on point so thanks for your suggestion and request.**

**Heads up, for those that are sort of deciding whether or not to read based on how dark this is sounding before the chapter even begins, I was inspired largely by Re: Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu by Nagatsuki Tappei and his main character Natsuki Subaru. If you've seen/read it then you should have an idea of what follows…..**

**And from me, I hope that you enjoy even though it is a little dark. Can you enjoy dark things? Or do we enter a state of brooding? Whatever emotions you feel when reading this….I hope that they are strong that leave you in a state of whatever state you are in.**

**Happy New Year by the way and I hope we can all enjoy 2017 with everything that we have!**

**Let the suffering commence.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

Remnants of an Endless Hell. _A_Truly_Hellish_Dream._

The scenery had changed, Index finding herself in the courtyard of A Certain High School but for the life of her, she couldn't figure out how in the world she had gotten there in the first place.

Night gripped the entire courtyard and the girl found her gaze being on its side. From that alone she could tell that she was lying on her side but how she had gotten there in the first place was beyond her. In fact, when she had moved from where she had originally been to here without her knowing was something that she could just not figure out, no matter how many explanations went through her head.

It had only been a few days since Kamijou Touma had fought the world.

It had only been a few days since Othinus had managed to acquire the power of a Magic God yet decided to throw it all away by eloping with the boy to Denmark.

The incident had been resolved ultimately and the consequences of the boy's action had caught up to him quickly; being constrained to bedrest as he recovered from the wounds that he had incurred during his time facing the world. The fact that he had managed to continue going despite the wounds themselves and reach from one side of Denmark to the other was amazing in itself but any awe that Index had at his actions was lost at her concern and anger for the boy for undertaking them.

After all, in Tokyo Bay what he had essentially done was disappear with their enemy after having reached some kind of silent understanding with her. He and Othinus had teleported themselves to Denmark where they had fought for their lives (it was more Kamijou doing this) in order to allow Othinus the chance to regain her life as a normal human.

While that was something Index only knew in hindsight after the incident was over, the peace that she felt over the incident's end was only tainted by one thing; the confusion that she had over the sudden change in heart of Othinus.

Currently, through some kind of twist of fate or something along those lines, Othinus had shrunk down to only 15 centimetres. While that was the end result of the incident that had rocked the world to its core, that former Magic God had been given the punishment to be by Kamijou's side in order to live out her life watching the world go by in front of her. She seemed satisfied with it as a whole but it seemed as though there was some kind of silent regret at the actions that had led to her position being what it was.

But even though that was what happened at the end of the incident, what had happened during it was something that Index could not get her head around. In fact, while she knew what had happened as a fact, what had been experienced was something that was beyond her.

Her 103,000 grimoires allowed her to understand the possibilities that could be achieved using the powers of a Magic God. As such, Index was perhaps the only person in the world that had knowledge of what could be done using such powers without actually having the capabilities of becoming one herself.

Such knowledge meant that there was one thing that had happened during the fight against Othinus.

And that was that she had managed to gain the powers of a Magic God and had destroyed the world.

Such was definitely possible using the powers of a Magic God and from the expressions of both Othinus and Kamijou when she had confronted them both with Leivinia Birdway about the issue, it seemed as though her guess was correct. Othinus had indeed destroyed the world yet had changed it back, only to elope with Kamijou to Denmark in order to return her body to normal.

While the entire world was satisfied with the result, after all the international terrorist organisation known as GREMLIN had been disbanded and Othinus given her punishment as the leader of such a group, the change of heart that Othinus had had bothered Index to no end. She had suddenly gone from someone that had the power to destroy the world (and had done so) only to return the world to its previous state and wish to return to becoming a human.

It made no sense.

Yet that was what had happened.

If there was anyone that understood what had happened during the time when Othinus had destroyed the world and changed it to match her will, it would have been Kamijou Touma. With Imagine Breaker acting as a reference point for the world and protecting its holder, he would have been the one singularity that could never be changed no matter what.

Therefore, looking at the evidence, the only person that would have experienced the world being destroyed and whatever changed world Othinus had created as a result would have been him.

Index herself had no problems with the way that the incident had ended. The world was safe, GREMLIN was disbanded and Othinus had lost her power. While she had her little problems with the resolution though (such as Othinus being forced to stick by Touma's side) the overall resolution was something that she was not bothered by.

But the events leading to the resolution were what bothered her.

She had asked Kamijou once, and only once what had happened in the time when Othinus had destroyed the world and changed it. She had asked him what he had seen, what had changed and how Othinus had changed it. Index recalled something that Kamijou had said prior to them fighting in Denmark, that there had been an 'infinite hell'.

But the meaning of such eluded her. Was it a metaphor or an exaggeration? As far as Index knew, it was entirely possible for Othinus to have destroyed and rebuilt the world as she saw fit countless times but as far as her own deductions regarding what had happened when Othinus had destroyed the world went, Othinus had destroyed the world and changed it at least once.

That one possibility that Othinus had; having destroyed the world 'at least once' caused her to truly fear what Kamijou had seen despite having overcome it.

While Index noted that Othinus called Kamijou her 'Understander' and he doing the same for her, she was not worried about the hidden meaning behind such. After all, something had happened during the time when the world had been changed and something had happened between them. It was not Index's place to pry into what had changed between the two formerly bitter enemies into what seemed like good friends. After all, whatever Othinus had faced, she surely wanted to keep it to herself as a precious memory.

Index did the same with her own 'incident' with the boy. She kept it to herself, treating the memory of their first encounter precious and the feeling of joy she had felt when he had saved her. If someone asked her, she would tell them what had happened but Index knew the want to keep such personal and important memories to herself. So she didn't pry into why Othinus had changed; either the former Magic God would tell her in her own time or Touma would of his own volition.

Index respected the both of them in that sense but even so, there was a nagging in the back of her mind, something that she had to have answered no matter what.

What had happened when Othinus had changed the world? How had she changed it?

If anything, Index wanted to know the answers to those questions. It didn't matter if the answers led to her understanding why Othinus had seemingly changed in a matter of seconds when they had met in Tokyo Bay but she had to know the answer to those questions.

How had the world changed? What had Kamijou Touma seen in the changed world? It clearly must not have been that major; he was physically fine and he had not changed whatsoever, continuing his bad habit of risking his life to save one person and their smile as seen with Othinus.

Index had asked once. Only once.

Yet as Kamijou recovered within the District 7 hospital under the care of that frog-faced doctor, her illusions that what Kamijou had faced was 'nothing major' were thrown into the wind.

Kamijou, as always had smiled and said that it was nothing really that big a deal however the expression that he made haunted Index to her core. The smile that he had given was entirely hollow, as if there was no scrap of happiness behind it and the smile that he had given could only be described as painful to her.

It was as if the boy was screaming, wanting to tell her what had happened and how it had affected him but was withholding it, bottling up his pain because the incident was over and everything was underneath the bridge.

Index had hated that smile. She hated the fact that Kamijou bore the weight of whatever burden he was carrying by himself and that he was keeping it to himself. But more than anything, she hated the fact that in her desire to never want to see that smile again, that painful smile which made it seem as though Kamijou himself wanted to scream in pain, she had left the issue as it was.

She didn't want to see the boy in pain, especially when he was trying to hide it from her.

So she didn't ask him again.

She had asked Othinus though and any questions she had about what Kamijou had faced were only chillingly answered indirectly with her few words that struck into Index's very soul.

_"Don't ask questions you don't want the answer to."_

What potential horrors Kamijou had faced only stabbed into her mind but she had left them alone, unable to do anything. Othinus clearly did not want to answer her questions nor did Kamijou. Having the better relationship with Touma meant that she was probably going to get answers from him but her desire to never see the pained smile that he had made again prevented her from doing so.

She knew it was selfish. She hated her own powerlessness, Kamijou's persistence to not tell her about the pain he had experienced and the fact that she could not even console him because she didn't know what had happened.

So she had left the issue, even though the same questions had filled her mind.

What had Othinus changed?

How had she changed the world?

What did you see in the changed world?

Index left all of those questions behind and ignored them completely no matter how much she wanted to know the answer to them.

While she had asked her questions a few days ago, in the current moment, the last thing that she remembered was having fallen asleep next to Kamijou while he himself slept in his bed. Awfully bored given that most of her fun was with Touma and Kazakiri Hyouka, she had spent most of her time trying to get to know Othinus a bit better as it was clear that she was not going to be leaving any time soon. Still, with nothing to do as Touma was out of commission, she had gone naturally to his room for something to do.

He was still recovering and the open window that blew a chilly breeze into the room meant that the entire room had gotten awfully cold. She sat on the chair next to the bed, noting that Othinus was sleeping on the sheets, having curled up on the lower part of the blanket for warmth. Index though didn't mind Othinus or the cold, only grabbing the boy's right hand and holding it close to her face for the warmth that it provided as she rested her head on the boy's bed, placing the hand on her head.

Although she would never state it out loud, she loved it when the boy patted her head. Sometimes doing it as a joke or mocking her, she would silently enjoy the moments that Kamijou did that one action with a small blush on her face. It was her guilty pleasure and she took no shame in it although there was perhaps an aspect of embarrassment should Kamijou ever discover her enjoyment of the action.

As far as she knew, she had fallen asleep (after all, how can one remember falling asleep?) and woken up in the courtyard of A Certain High School with her view sideways as she lay on the ground in the middle of the night.

_"Where – My voice?!"_

Index spoke however it came out strange. It sounded disembodied like she was experiencing an out of body experience within her own body, something that was separated from her mouth. She knew she was making the words, she could feel them escaping from her mouth and the vibrations of the throat.

But her mouth wasn't moving as a result.

Whatever she was saying, she could feel she was saying and she could hear her own voice. But at the same time, she could tell that her mouth was not moving. She had no idea what in the world had happened however she immediately knew the sensation that filled her as she had experienced it many times before.

_"A…. memory?"_

Index frowned. Or rather the 'part of her viewing the memory' did. Like when she accessed her own memories with her perfect memory she knew that she could not change the events that she recalled. She could imagine what had happened if she had done something different in the memory but she would never be able to change it within her mind; it being fixed.

This was somewhat similar in a way.

Index was viewing the memory in her head and as a result could not change anything that she was seeing. She was looking through her own eyes but could not manipulate the memory in anyway. She could move her hands and legs and the like but the actions would not translate into movement of her 'body in the memory' only being movement in the ephemeral body that was viewing the memory.

Although she didn't really understand the science behind such, it was like one of those science fiction movies Kamijou had showed her once where there were people living inside a human body which was actually a human-sized robot. The people that controlled it were smaller and operated the entire human body to move. Viewing a memory for Index was sort of like that.

She could interact with the memory, experience it but anything she did or said in order to change it would have no effect. She would only be constrained to what she did during the memory and that was it. She could talk, jump and fall on the floor but doing so would never effect the 'memory', only the 'part of her viewing the memory'.

Kamijou had once asked her what it felt like with a perfect memory and she had explained it like that however Kamijou had only seemed to partially understand what she meant despite her best efforts to explain.

Whatever the case, Index could tell that this was a memory. She could not interfere with it but she could react to it, even though doing so would not affect the memory itself.

In essence then right now there were two Indexes. The one 'recalling' the memory; Index and the one who had experienced and lived out the memory, the one who Index was 'recalling', 'Index'.

But the strange thing for Index was that she didn't _remember _this memory.

That statement in itself was nothing more than a contradiction.

Index had deduced that the experience she was having was that of viewing a memory, everyone did it and the feeling that she got from the entire experience right now was that of her recalling a memory even though it was distant.

But the thing was, she didn't _remember _having such a memory such as this.

When was the last time that she had visited A Certain High School? Index recalled each and every time she had done so but none of them had involved visiting it at night or lying down on the ground as she was doing right now. Not as far as she remembered.

Yet this was a memory. Which meant that it had to have been something that she had experienced even though she didn't recall it. But that made no sense. If she had the memory of it, then logically she should know when it was or when it happened. Since she didn't….

_"D-Don't tell me this is the world Othinus created?!"_

Index's disembodied voice filled the air around her however never actually exited out of mouth that was experiencing the memory. Still, that was the only possibility that filled her mind as she turned her head however the action never translated into movement of the head of 'Index' in the memory.

Boy, this was confusing.

That was the only thing that Index had to think to herself as she frowned while observing the memory.

This was a memory that she had experienced yet did not recall. The only reason for such a contradictory statement given her perfect memory was that the memory itself had been erased, only for her to recall it now in her sleep as she slept in the District 7 hospital. The fact that she was inside the courtyard of A Certain High School suggested that this memory had happened after she had met Kamijou on July 20th. But as far as she knew there had been little opportunity for her to be in this position and thus no way for the memory to form in and of itself.

Of course, given that this memory had been erased and she only recalling it now suggested that it could have happened at any time provided it was night and she was in Academy City but the one thing that suggested to Index that this was the world that Othinus had created while she had her powers as a Magic God was something that was in her vision on the side.

_And that was Othinus herself sitting on one of the buildings, Gungnir by her side as she regarded the area below her with a bored look._

The sight of the full power Magic God put Index on full alert however she knew that since this was a memory there was nothing she could do to influence what she was seeing. Still the sight of Othinus only made the girl question basic things that had happened to her in the past few days.

Othinus had destroyed the world and changed it. As far as Index knew, that was a fact but then that rose a basic question.

_What about her?_

What about Index? When the world had been destroyed and changed, had she been 'created' in the changed world? And if she had, then what about her memories from that time?

If indeed Othinus had placed Index or at least her mind inside the changed world, then it only followed that she would have memories of that time. Yet as Index searched her own memories now, she could find nothing of the sort. Which only suggested one thing.

Naturally, it was that if she had indeed been 'created' in the changed world that her memories had been erased. They had been created as a result of magic and erased as a result of magic. And in order for her to access the memory in the first place there was only one thing that could possibly have happened.

The 'seal' on the erased memories had been lifted, allowing her to access them. And there was only one thing in the world that she knew had the power to do that.

Imagine Breaker.

Or the right hand that _was sitting on her head _as she slept in the same room as the holder of it, Kamijou Touma.

Had the contact with her head for an extended period of time meant that it had undone the 'seal' of her erased memories and allowed her to access this memory as she dreamed? It was possible but then it meant another thing that had to happen secondary to Index recalling the memory in the first place.

The memory had been erased by magic, but it had been _created _by magic in the first place. And if Imagine Breaker had lifted the 'seal' on the erased memories then soon she would forget the memory altogether as it was erased from her mind not as a result of magic but rather as a result of the magic created memory being negated entirely.

Index would soon forget this memory. That much was clear.

But what made no sense was why this memory was going on for so long. Imagine Breaker worked practically immediately, the moment it touched something supernatural or magical in nature, it negated it instantly. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that the time between contact and negation was so short that it was basically an immediate negation.

If Index used that definition of Imagine Breaker's immediate negation, then if one placed layer upon layer of magical spells upon one another like a massive tower, combining them into one spell, then how long would it take Imagine Breaker to negate that?

If magic was negated practically instantly, what if the small time needed to negate was stretched out over plenty of spells?

It made no sense that Index was looking at this memory for as long as she had provided it was the only memory that had been erased by magic.

Which only meant that the only thing that she could deduce that was it was not the only memory that had been created and erased by Othinus. It was only _one of many _memories and worlds that had been created by the Magic God. Using that definition made sense, Imagine Breaker would be constantly negating the erased memories that Index had, allowing her to remember them, only for them to be negated again and destroyed completely.

How many memories was that killer right hand sifting through right now as it sat on her head?

When would it be time for this memory to be negated by Imagine Breaker after the 'seal of erasing' on it had been lifted, only for her to forget it forever?

Index had no idea but the prospect, the simple idea that Othinus had created more than one world to trap Kamijou Touma in made a chill go up her spine. If she was not looking at a memory and had her physical body Index was sure that a drop of sweat would have rolled down her cheek as she considered the implications of what that meant.

The words of Kamijou Touma as he said them: 'infinite hell' filled her mind as she felt as though she would go pale.

Surely that didn't mean –

Instantly she was assaulted by a magnificent pain that rocked her head to the very core. Index winced in pain and if she had control of the body she was looking through would have brought a hand up to her head in pain. Information poured into her head, something that she felt was necessary given what she was experiencing.

This was the changed world.

_One of them at least._

And as such, as this was a memory, the 'settings' of such a world would be pouring into her head. When recalling a memory, often context was something that allowed it to take form. Looking at the scene right now meant nothing to Index and it was only when the 'context' was given to her that the events would start to make sense.

Such context poured into her head as she sifted through the sudden information that would allow the memory to make sense to her.

What had Othinus changed?

How had she changed the world?

What did Kamijou Touma see in the changed world?

The answers to such questions would be provided in the context that was pouring into Index's head however she could feel her heart race even though she was viewing nothing but a memory. This was one of the worlds that Kamijou had experienced, had smiled painfully at the mere thought of them and had said nothing to Index about them.

What in the world did that mean she was about to see? What in the world had Othinus put him through?

She had been told to not ask questions she didn't want to know the answers to.

Did that mean that this was territory that could never be touched? That had to be stayed away from? Index didn't know however she stood her ground, closing her eyes and letting the information surge through her head.

If Imagine Breaker was breaking the 'seal' on the erased memories, then she would forget this memory as it had been created by magic in the first place. If she wanted to know the answer to her questions, if she wanted to understand what Kamijou had gone through in the changed world then she could not step back even though her mind screamed at her.

It told her that this was something she did not want to see. It told her that it was something that she should not see. It told her that it was something she could not see. Her mind rejected the very premise of the information pouring into her head about the context of this changed world, one of only many Othinus had created when she had become a Magic God.

But Index didn't care.

She HAD to know.

What had Kamijou Touma seen in this changed world? How had Othinus changed it and in what way?

The allure of those questions drew her in as she sifted through the information being given to her.

[In this world Othinus had managed to acquire Gungnir after becoming a Magic God]

Index nodded to herself. In that way, the world hadn't changed at all from the one that she had experienced, save for Gungnir. In her world, that Magic God had not formed that weapon but it seemed that in the changed one that was entirely different. In one of the changed ones at least. Index could not tell if such a 'context' was particular to this world or many but she continued to sift through the information provided to her.

[As a result of her gaining her power, Othinus wiped out all of the food supplies and production within the world]

Index frowned at that. What in the world did that achieve? Any questions though were answered as she continued to sift through the information.

[Due to the unprecedented attack on global food supplies, the United Nations had developed ways to restore back the world's food supplies but to no avail. Self-sustaining nations had managed to survive for 2 years as well as providing support to other nations but with the growing population those nations soon ran out of food long before reaching a solution]

Index blinked in complete shock at what she had processed, unable to fully comprehend what in the world she was receiving in her mind.

2 years had passed? 2 years had passed within this changed world?

That sense of scale completely messed with Index's mind and shook her to the core, and that was just using those facts alone. She had only known Touma for less than 6 months when Othinus and GREMLIN had posed the threat to the world and when she had changed the world, Othinus had placed Kamijou in this particular world for 2 years?!

That sense of scale, wandering a world that he did not belong to in the hope that something, anything would change in itself made Index feel as though the very life had been sucked from her veins.

Was that the despair that Kamijou Touma faced? This was not the only world that Othinus had created and yet he had spent 2 years at least here.

What had that felt like?

What had the feeling of being unable to return to his original world for 2 years felt like?

Index was only at the end of the line, the world that had been restored, having been the one that she was born into. In a way, she had cheated and skipped that 2 years and found herself amidst the continuing timeline that she was a part of originally.

It had only seemed like seconds for her.

Yet how long had Kamijou Touma despaired for in order to reach those few precious seconds?

Index felt as though she had to stop. Just seeing that sense of passed time and the fact that _there were plenty more worlds upon that _made her want to stop receiving the information about this world. However, it didn't stop, continuing to hammer into Index's head as she was forced to filter it and process it.

She felt as though that sense of passed time had been the worst of it.

The next information that came into her mind put even that to shame.

[In their desperation, humanity turned to the only food source that they had]

Index knew that what was to come next was something that she should not look at it. She could instinctively tell that she would not be able to accept it, trying with all of her might to reject the information and 'context' to come but she was unable to.

It poured into her head like a disease and she could only let out pained gasps of shock and horror as the information provided her the only food source that humanity had after everything was exhausted.

[Each other]

The information stopped and suddenly Index was aware that her mouth was dry and a feeling of pure longing struck her. No more information poured into her head but a sensation that she had never felt before filled her entire body as she struggled to even let out a single breath.

"Ahh…."

A voice came through the air however it was not from Index who was watching the memory play out. Instead it was coming from 'Index' from within the memory. In a time and place inside Othinus's world 'Index' had said those words as they seemed to echo through the courtyard.

Index watched as the memory played out, watching as 'Index' tried to move along the ground inside the memory. But even then, Index immediately knew what the longing feeling within her body was, so powerful that it was painful.

She was starving.

In Othinus's world, in the memory that she was made to experience, 'Index' had starved. In the world where the world's food resources had run out, 'she' had run out of things to eat and had starved. 'Her' entire body screamed for nutrients, screamed for something, anything to eat in order to satisfy 'her' endless hunger.

Index could feel the sensation that came with the memory; the pain, the complete lack of movement that came along with the pain of starving and the dryness of the mouth. If she was not watching the memory, Index was sure that she would have fallen to her knees out of complete exhaustion from the pain that came with lack of food and not moved an inch, her body having no energy to even move.

Index watched the memory play out, could feel that her eyelids were heavy as 'Index' lay on the ground in the courtyard of A Certain High School. Why 'she' was lying on the ground was painfully obvious; with nothing to eat and facing a world that had run out of food, 'she' had simply collapsed, unable to even muster energy to take that first step forward to find something, anything to eat.

And something extremely basic, something extremely human came to Index, both the one that was watching the memory and the one that was within the memory itself.

_"I…..I need something to eat. A-Anything! I need something….!"_

"I…..I need something to eat. A-Anything! I need something….!"

'Index' grabbed at the ground, trying 'her' very best to inch 'herself' forward, to crawl along the ground to find something, anything to eat. 'Her' starvation permeated through 'her' very body and attacked it, a dryness in 'her' throat almost unbearable now.

'She' felt tears come to 'her' eyes and the pure realisation that there was nothing for 'her' to eat hit 'her' like a truck.

And with nothing to eat, 'she' was going to die.

'Her' death would be simple. It was almost comical how such a thing could end a life despite everything people put into trying to ensure that they lived as long a life as possible.

And all the while, sitting upon one of the buildings of A Certain High School, Othinus watched it all without even batting the eyelid of her one eye.

_"No….I don't want to die! G-Give me something! Anything! I'll do anything!"_

Index let out that cry as she watched the memory however it never even escaped the lips from 'Index' in the memory. She could affect it with her own words but even so, words of the exact same sentiment escaped her lips, having been the ones that 'Index' had actually said in the world and memory that Othinus had created.

"Othinus! I-I'll do anything! Anything you ask! J-Just give me something to eat! Any….thing…."

'Index' begged Othinus for something to eat as the girl merely looked at the form of 'her' on the ground, eyeing 'her' as she seemed to assess the insignificance of the mere human that was beneath her. She regarded 'Index' with no emotion in her eye but even so, let out words that seemed to bellow from her throat.

But Index knew that they were not ones directed at her.

"So, in this world, desperation gave into pure chaos. The people of the world sought their own selfish desires to the extent that they didn't even care about those that they killed in their path, only seeking to satisfy their own hunger. Is this really the world that you wanted to return to human?"

Index knew exactly who those words were directed to and the voice of that person roared into the air as a scream.

"OTHINUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!"

Immediately above 'Index' in the memory the sound of glass breaking filled the air. On instinct alone in her memory Index had turned her head to face the sound of the glass breaking and 'Index' did the same as 'she' saw what burst out of the window from A Certain High School above her.

Kamijou Touma let out the roar as he jumped from the third-floor window, bracing himself as he fell through the air and landed on the ground. He didn't do so perfectly, hitting the ground hard, a piece of glass imbedding itself into his shoulder as he let out a scream of pain. But even then, he paid no mind to it as he grabbed the glass in his shoulder and turned his gaze back to Othinus who was sitting on the building of the same school.

_"Touma!"_

Watching the memory, Index let out that shout however the name never left 'her' mouth as while experiencing the world Othinus had created, 'Index' had never said the name. Kamijou, oblivious to the nun that was starving behind him though only panted as he took out the piece of glass and threw it to the ground.

He was clearly out of breath, tired and exhausted however he still stared right at Othinus with an intensity in his eyes that could not be matched by any other.

"Give it back. Give me back my world. Give it back to me Othinus!" Kamijou yelled at the top of his lungs as Othinus stood and jumped from the building, Index watching as 'Index' saw that she had floated to the ground. Kamijou stood in front of 'Index' on the ground and clenched his entire fist tight as a rock, his entire body radiating anger and hostility at the Magic God.

'Index' on the ground slowly reached for the dirt and pushed 'herself' forward. Index watched 'her' do so as Othinus landed on the ground and regarded Kamijou with nothing but boredom as she shrugged.

"Really? When this is all that it is made from? What was the death toll in the 2 years you spent here? I believe something like 3.8 billion. And you want to return to that world? The world where in their desperation, people will waste no thought upon feasting on each other. Are you really satisfied with that?"

"You've done something to them Othinus and we both know it! You've only twisted the world in this direction so that you can press on my heart from all directions so there's no rule saying that the people of my world are like this! So don't give me that shit! I… _I refuse to believe that my own father would cannibalise my mother just to satisfy his own hunger!"_

"Are you only saying that because you could not accept her death? And then the death of your father as he was devoured by your cousin?"

"You've twisted the world to become like this Othinus and we both know it! I refuse to accept this world and I'm going to take back the one that I remember!"

"Say what you like, but you're forgetting one thing. _You failed to save even your family_. In times of desertion even loved ones will turn on each other. There is nothing holding you to that world; when the going gets tough, those bonds you think are so precious will clash against each other and leave you with nothing. Were you really holding onto something so fragile this entire time?" Othinus asked her words as 'Index' crawled along the ground but what she was saying made Index watching the memory go on white in the face.

Kamijou had lived in this world for 2 years and in that time the entire world had fallen apart. The thought of the mother, father and cousin of the boy devouring each other made Index's imagination run wild and the mere thought of it made something rise in her throat however she forced it down.

This was a memory.

This had already happened.

But even so, Index suddenly felt as though she understood the painful smile that he had made when she had asked him about the time he had spent with Othinus. In one of those worlds, his own family had died, eating each other and there was nothing that he could have done to stop it. It would have crushed his heart, torn into his very being and made him experience despair as those that he loved even turned on each other in their desperation.

And among it all, Kamijou Touma had faced it all alone.

That pure realisation made Index put her hands to her mouth in shock as she viewed the memory while 'Index' in the memory continued to crawl 'her' way to Kamijou as he stood before 'her'. 'Her' starvation continued to rock 'her' body and every single movement 'she' made felt like it was pure torture as 'she' stretched 'her' body past its limits to reach the boy in front of 'her'.

'She' had to do it. That much 'she' knew and that realisation passed onto Index as she viewed the memory.

But even so, this hell that was in front of Index right now was not one that was meant to destroy the world.

One thing was clear.

This world was meant to destroy Kamijou Touma.

It was meant to make him view the world in a cynical light, make him think that in their desperation the bonds that he had built up were thrown into the wind. It was made to make him think that people only truly viewed themselves and that every kindness shown to him was nothing more than a façade. It was made to make him lament on the loss of his family and the fact that he could do nothing.

In this world Kamijou Touma had undeniably lost.

He had lost his family.

He had lost his friends.

He had lost whatever allies he thought he had.

The only thing that he hadn't lost was his life but in this world, did that even mean anything? Was this type of world one that Kamijou wanted to continue on in?

Kamijou Touma must have asked that question one hundred times. But even so, that boy clenched his right fist as 'Index' crawled closer to him with all of the energy 'she' could muster. He tightened that fist and yelled at Othinus who stood across from him.

"Maybe I was! Maybe the people in the world view themselves as number one! Maybe in this world, there is a fraction of what is reflected in the world that I know! But I refuse to believe it all the same. You've changed perspectives Othinus and I've seen the hell that you've created here. And you know what? Even though I saw my mother and father die right in front of me, I noticed something. Their morals had entirely been reversed. They thought it was OK to kill each other and devour each other. Wasn't that what you changed Othinus?! You changed their morals and their perspectives of them! Yes, like you did in the _very first world_!"

Kamijou was shaking as 'Index' approached but as 'she' could not see his face, Index had no idea what type of expression he was making. But even so, the pain in his voice as he mentioned his parents and the _very first world _only indicated that Kamijou Touma was far from fine.

Just like 'Index' pushing 'herself' on the ground, how far had he had to do the same thing? How far had he had to push himself forward, ignore what had happened only to face the person that had caused all of this? How much suffering had he endured just so he could reach this stage and confront Othinus for her crimes?

Index could not see Kamijou from where she was looking through 'Index's' vision so she could not see how the 2 years had changed him physically. But since Othinus looked the same as she always did, was she preventing Kamijou from physically aging to make him watch as the world went past? He had lived in this world for 2 years but was it possible he still looked the exact same as when this world had started so he could watch as he could do nothing despite what he had achieved before using that body?

Wasn't this world just meant to break him?

That shaking indicated he was far from fine but how far had he gone just to reach this courtyard and place to confront Othinus?

Index could not say but the mere thought of it crushed her soul as she trembled, trying to think of something to say but knowing it would never reach.

Othinus though only leaned on Gungnir as she inspected her fingernails before brushing her luscious hair away from her. She shook her head and pointed at Kamijou.

"I'm actually quite amazed. Here I thought that the despair you felt when _I killed your family_ would be enough. But it seems as though while you accepted you could not save them, you've clung onto the small hope that this world has had its morals changed. You've denied those deaths by focusing on the small hope that it would never happen in the world you remember."

"…What of it?"

'Index' crawled along the ground, slowly reaching for Kamijou in front of 'her' with 'her' hands as Index could do nothing but watch, enthralled by what was transpiring; an exchange between God and the only person that could oppose her.

"That hope is the only thing keeping you sane I'd say. So, taking that into account, if I crush the hope that 'people really wouldn't devour each other when things got tough' I'd say that I'd have won." Othinus said that simply as Index suddenly became aware of something.

'Index', who was starving in the memory was crawling along the ground and reaching for Kamijou. With the world as it was then, why would 'Index' do that? Why would 'she' go past 'her' limits? For what possible reason would 'she' think of doing that for?

There was only one answer.

For food.

And the only thing, the only possible food source that was in front of 'her' right now was….

_"T-Touma! Run away! Run away Touma! Run away before I grab you! Hurry!"_

Index screamed as she realised the basic want that filled 'Index's' mind as 'she' reached for Kamijou's leg, slowly opening 'her' mouth in order to feast on the only food source that was available to 'her' now.

Kamijou Touma.

Index watched in horror but it seemed as though the Magic God in front of the boy had different ideas altogether.

"And in order to crush that hope, I think you would need to experience the desperation of the world driven to starvation instead of just witnessing it. I hope you haven't forgotten human. _What exactly were you running away from before you reached here?"_

Index's eyes went wide as she listened to Othinus speaking in the memory just as a shadow entered her view as 'Index' saw something descend from above, the moonlight catching the sight of something falling. 'Index' did not look up, only trying to reach for Kamijou however the boy seemed to realise Othinus's threat and turned his head upwards.

Just as Misaka Mikoto descended from above, throwing herself onto him as they both fell to the ground. The boy cried out and 'Index' did as well as 'her' food source was lost while Index watched Kamijou fall to the ground with Mikoto on top of him.

_"Touma!"_

She cried out at the top of her lungs but was unable to do anything to affect the memory as she got a good look at Mikoto.

2 years had changed her unlike with Kamijou now that Index had gotten a good look at the boy who seemed unchanged even after 2 years, confirming her suspicions that Othinus prevented him physically aging in this world to torture him. Mikoto had gotten taller and more filled out in certain areas and she was wearing casual clothes but any colours that were on them seemed to have been lost, died entirely by red and she looked down at the boy that was below her. Her eyes were bloodshot, full of nothing but desire as she formed something within her hand, small specks of sand flying through the air as Kamijou on the ground went wide eyed.

Mikoto opened her mouth and Index saw through the eyes of 'Index' that her teeth were yellow, stained with blood with that same blood splattered along her mouth in a gruesome way.

"I'm sorry," Mikoto said that but her voice was frantic as if she were on a high as she looked down at Kamijou. "I'll make this as painless as possible…. but I can't handle the starvation anymore!"

The sand suddenly turned into a proper shape, being that of a sword as Kamijou instantly rose his right hand and tried to touch it, shouting at the same time.

"Wait Misaka! Th-This isn't you! Think! Think back to the morals that you have! Othinus, the one who caused all of this is right there! You don't have to – "

"I _don't care_."

That was all that Mikoto said as she angled the iron sand sword downwards in order to avoid Kamijou's right hand.

And she instantly set it into Kamijou's left ankle.

With a spray of blood and a scream, the entire thing was chopped off without any resistance, Kamijou screaming in pain as Mikoto rose the iron sand sword once more for a second blow to chop off more flesh. Kamijou though intercepted the weapon with his right hand and struck Mikoto in the hand. With Kamijou's strength and Mikoto's physical weakness after having being starved, she fell off relatively easily but the only thing she cared about was the _left foot of Kamijou Touma _that sat on the ground.

She snatched it up, tearing off the shoe and sock and wasted no time biting into the flesh.

Blood sprayed from the wound as horrific chomping and chewing sounds filled the air, Index watching horrified as Mikoto didn't even hesitate in the action, chewing away as Kamijou breathed heavily, his own eyes on the verge of tears as he looked straight at Othinus.

"OTHINUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!"

Kamijou screamed, doing the only thing that he could do as he forced down the pain, crawling along the ground and trying to use his knees in order to stand. 'Index' could only continue to crawl along the ground, the weakness brought by the starvation meaning that 'she' moved slowly along the ground, passing by Mikoto who was feasting on Kamijou's flesh.

Kamijou desperately crawled along the ground, his pained grunts filling the courtyard as Othinus merely watched with a cold eye, disregarding the pain that the boy was going through. She rose her hand and merely pointed into the distance, speaking as she did so.

"Did you think that was it?"

Kamijou paled in horror and Index watching the memory did the same as she saw the boy turn through the eyes of 'Index' who had experienced the memory, the boy only catching a glimpse of the nun that was crawling towards him. Fear entered his eyes as he looked at 'her' and that only stabbed deeply into the heart of the girl watching the memory as she cried out.

_"N-No! Touma, I would never think of ea – "_

She felt disgusting for trying to keep her own position in favour as she started to deny what was clearly on the boy's mind but he looked past 'her' as 'Index' crawled along the ground towards him.

And what he saw there made his entire face contort in horror as he turned back to face the person that had caused all this in the first place.

"OTHI – "

Kamijou never got another word out as with a gust of wind, the boy that Index recalled as being the #1 Level 5 of Academy City, Accelerator, descended onto where Kamijou was. Like Mikoto, the boy seemed older, more toned and a bit more mature but those details were lost by his maddened eyes and the pure look of desperation on his face.

He didn't say anything as he instantly turned both of his hands down and grabbed Kamijou's right leg without hesitation, his grip so strong that Index could hear the cracking of bones where 'she' crawled along the ground.

Kamijou screamed and Index felt her blood go cold as she heard his screams, trying to cover it with her own as she screamed as well. If she had control of her physical body she was sure that she would have fallen to her knees and covered her ears in an attempt to drown out his screams as she covered them with her own.

_"Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"_

Accelerator did not say anything as he continued to crush that leg, Kamijou trying to turn back to strike the boy with his right hand however the boy didn't waste any time, instantly opening his mouth and sending his jaw into Kamijou's right leg.

Blood sprayed from the wound, splashing against Accelerator's face as Kamijou continued to scream yet the cracking of bones as Accelerator went past the muscle to pierce the bone resounded through the air.

"My leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeegggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg!"

Kamijou screamed at the top of his lungs as he punched Accelerator in the face, the boy recoiling however tightening his grip on the boy's leg. Kamijou continued to scream, doing the only thing that he could in order to escape from the pain and pounded Accelerator in the face again, his own blood splattering along the ground as Accelerator was hit.

The boy though, eyes mad with desperation and desire to satisfy the hunger brought by Othinus only turned to the one preventing him from having his feast, grabbing Kamijou's right ear and ripping it from the side of his head.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Kamijou held both of his hands to the right side of his face as Accelerator crushed the ear between his teeth, blood running down Kamijou's face as the boy opened his mouth once more and tore into the leg. Bones crushed and Accelerator tore a chunk of flesh from the boy's leg, muscle shooting into the air as parts of it broke off. He chewed, savouring the flesh as Kamijou, tears of pain coming from his eyes struggled forward, grabbing at the ground in pure desperation in order to escape.

Yet he did not flee from the boy, only going towards the greater danger that was Othinus.

"You! You did this! YOU DID THIS!"

Kamijou screamed at the top of his lungs, Index feeling tears run down her face as she recalled the memory. She wanted to reach out, wanted to do something in order to help yet the only thing 'Index' did was crawl along the ground towards Kamijou. Her complete lack of ability to do anything made her want to cry out but she knew that there was nothing she could do as she watched the gruesome scene play out in front of her.

_"No…..no…. W-Why can't I do anything?! Why did Touma have to go through this?! Why did you do this Othinus!? What did Touma do to deserve this?! What did he do?!"_

Her teary shouts were never even heard though as Othinus spoke while looking at Kamijou on the ground in his pitiful state with no regards of sorrow on her face.

"Still holding onto that hope? You can end this right here and now." She crouched down in front of the boy as Kamijou tried to advance yet screamed as Accelerator tore into the boy's leg and ripped out a flesh covered bone, trying to roll around in pain but pinned by the boy's body.

"Just break."

Othinus spat out those words as Kamijou continued to scream as Accelerator bit into his flesh once more, wanting flesh from the leg instead of the bone.

"Break."

_"Stop! Just stop this Othinus! Touma did nothing to deserve this! HE DID NOTHING! H-He worked so hard to save so many, never asked for anything in return so why…? Why?!"_

Index watching the memory screamed however Othinus heard nothing, just looking at the boy as he screamed on the ground in front of her.

"Break."

_"Why are you doing this?! How is what Touma did bad in any way!? He never sought reward, never asked for anything! H-He was one of the best of us, a kindness in this darkness of humanity and this is what he gets in return!? How is that fair!? How can you do that to him!?"_

Accelerator it seemed, in his madness and desire for a prey that would not move had had enough of Kamijou's screaming and moving. Without any hesitation, he reached for the boy's thigh, tearing through the skin there with monstrous strength and gripping the bone.

And then, with nothing more than a simple action tore out the right leg of Kamijou Touma.

Bone cracked, blood sprayed in all directions and Kamijou Touma screamed, turning away from Othinus and looking at the right leg that Accelerator held his hands, chewing and devouring the leg itself. His scream became louder as the psychological pressure of seeing part of himself being eaten bit into him as sharp as the teeth actually chewing part of him, tearing at his mind, heart and soul.

"Just break already."

_"LEAVE HIM ALONE! Touma did nothing wrong! He's innocent so why did you think that he deserved this?! What part of him was evil and deserved this?! Tell me Othinus!? Stop already! Just…..stop….."_

Index heard herself crying, unable to accept that the only thing that she could do was sit there and accept the reality of what was happening in front of her.

This had happened. Kamijou Touma had truly experienced this hell and had lived through it, only to experience more and more pain on a greater scale.

Index had thought that by asking him to explain what had happened during his time with Othinus that she would come to understand the boy perhaps a bit better; what drove him, what had driven him to make Othinus restore the world when she had destroyed it.

But she knew that such a thing was impossible.

Even if Kamijou had told her what had happened, she would never have accepted it. It was on the level where the mind would naturally reject what had happened because of the basic fact that it bore so much pressure. Yet Kamijou had experienced it all. He had taken that pain, suffering, despair and bore it all by himself, taking it on and never explaining what had happened in order to keep others around him safe.

What would others say when he told them what had happened and they believed him?

They would react just as Index was right now, breaking down into tears and only giving words of apology and comfort.

But that was all that they could do. They could do nothing else as the entire incident had already passed and they could only hear stories of the pains that the boy had gone through.

And no matter what Kamijou said, tried to explain or say it carefully, there was one thing that Index understood as she wailed over the screams that came from Kamijou Touma.

That they would never understand.

That the pain that Kamijou Touma faced was something that no one would ever understand. How could anyone comprehend the fact that he had in essence been tortured within many worlds, his mind and heart being pressed down at all angles in order to satisfy the wishes of a single God?

The scale was just so removed than what the human mind could process.

Index recalled the pained smile that Kamijou had made, making a quiet whimper as she recalled how sad and pained it had looked to her.

She had had no idea. She had had no idea that this type of pain, this type of endless pain, suffering and despair was what lay behind that smile yet amidst it all Kamijou had tried to reassure Index that everything was fine. He had tried to tell her that everything would be alright, that it was nothing to worry about.

But as Kamijou Touma screamed in her memory, she knew that it was nothing but a lie.

A lie that had to be told because the truth would never be accepted.

He had to smile because no one would understand any tears that he had. He had to bear this pain alone and was currently doing so, unable to even tell anyone about the pain he had faced because of his own personality and wish to ensure that the others would not worry about him. Not only that, even if he told them what had happened to him, would they even be able to offer words of comfort?

True words of comfort worked when one knew that one understood the nature of the problem at hand.

But did anyone understand the feeling of being devoured by their friends? Did anyone understand the pain one felt when one had their entire family eaten before their eyes, only to have the strength to continue and find the instigator for their pain?

Of course not.

So Kamijou Touma had to bear the pain all alone, hoping that someone would understand his pain but never wanting someone to in order to make sure that no one felt the same pain that he had once felt.

He wanted someone to understand his pain so that he could let his suffering off his chest. But at the same time, he did not want someone to understand his pain to save them from it.

He called Othinus his Understander. Surely the girl must have, on some level also experienced this same pain.

But had it been given to her for the pure intents of tearing at her soul? If Othinus was his Understander then surely, they shared a bond that was connected by pain and equal suffering. But while Othinus had suffered, it had not been by somebody else's hand.

While Kamijou Touma had suffered by Othinus's hand and her hand alone.

And after everything, after all of that endless pain, suffering, despair, after the infinite hell, Kamijou Touma had done the one thing that should have been impossible.

_He had forgiven her._

He had forgiven the pain she had given him, accepting her as she was and allowing her the chance to live her life freely.

That kindness existed even after all of this.

That kindness had not been crushed and had continued to live on.

And Kamijou had shown that basic kindness to the one that had tortured him so.

He had done the impossible, accepted and forgiven Othinus, even though she was causing the screams that ripped through the air.

Kamijou Touma could never have his pain understood, nor did he want it to be. He would suffer alone, recalling these hells and never wanting anyone else to understand that same pain. He would smile painfully, leaving people to only wonder what had happened to him, while forgiving the person that had caused all of it.

How lonely was that?

Would Kamijou Touma suffer until the ends of the world, unable to save the one person that should have mattered most to him?

Himself?

_"Toumaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"_

Index's screams went unheard, as did Kamijou's who screamed in this memory as he crawled along the ground, still moving for his enemy in front of him. Index watched in pure horror while 'Index' crawled past Accelerator who feasted on Kamijou's leg.

_"Just stop Touma! Nothing is going to come of this! Just stop! Y-You don't have to be hurt anymore! You don't have to cry anymore! J-Just give in! Just give in to Othinus Touma!"_

Index knew that it was not the case, after all this was a memory. It had already happened and in reality, Kamijou had overcome this pain time and time again.

Index knew that if he gave in, the world would never have been restored.

Index knew that if he gave in, he would lose sight of everyone's smiles and the world that he wanted to return to.

Despite all of that though, Index still cried. She still cried for the boy to stop, to give in and the reason was as clear to her as it would have been to anyone that was seeing the exact same thing.

She didn't want to see Kamijou Touma in pain anymore. She didn't want him to cry, to feel sadness, to be alone, to suffer, to experience this pain anymore.

But this was a memory.

Things weren't going to change and Kamijou Touma had already experienced this pain.

Yet even so, Index cried for it to stop. She cried for him to give in and prioritise himself instead of others for once, just once. She wanted him to damn everyone else's smiles and give him time to smile just once.

But the words he said threw that into the wind.

"Give…"

And they crushed Index's soul as she realised that this hell would only continue as a result as Kamijou Touma refused to give up on seeing everyone's smiles again.

"Give….it….back."

Kamijou's voice was shaky and weak. His left ankle had been severed and the crushed bone where his right leg should have been was so distorted that it was surprising that he was still moving.

But he dug his fingers into the dirt, using whatever energy he could muster and dragged himself forward towards Othinus who was still crouched, regarding him as one would a small insect.

"Give me back my world."

Othinus blinked (or was it winking?) once, turning her gaze up to 'Index' as 'she' continued to crawl along the ground, regarding 'her' for an instant. Index froze up in pure fear as the Magic God looked at 'her' crawling along the ground.

Yet the view only lasted for a single second as Othinus stood up, looking down at Kamijou as he crawled along the ground. The blood trail behind him indicating how far he had crawled along the ground after having his left ankle chopped off had grown, the blood from his now missing right leg adding to the pool of blood that surrounded him.

Mikoto had already moved on to Kamijou's right leg, feasting with Accelerator as the squishing and chewing of flesh filled the air in a sickening way.

Othinus took one step towards Kamijou as he crawled on the ground, both Index and her watching as he tried to reach for Gungnir however cruelly, Othinus lifted it up in her hands out of his reach and held it down at him.

"Break."

"Fuck…you…..Othinus."

And Othinus reacted.

With a fluid motion, she _stabbed_ her right leg into the boy's left shoulder, driving the foot in as he screamed, trying to move but was rooted in place. The foot literally sank into the boy's flesh, a cracking sound coming from where her foot continued to sink into the boy's flesh, crushing bone in the process.

He reached for Othinus's foot however she had already retracted it, the motion amputating the arm in a gruesome way as it flew through the air, completely cut off now.

Kamijou screamed once more, reaching for where his left arm had once been, eyes frightened and frightfully wide with pain and fear as he panted, trying to hold back the pain but unable to do so at all. His gaze turned upwards at Othinus as he abandoned all attempts to even suppress the pain now as he grabbed at the ground with shaky fingers, blood and tears streaming down his face.

It was clear that he could not bear it any longer.

It was clear he wanted to give up.

Yet he still moved forward.

"Othi…nus…." Kamijou's voice was hoarse from all of his screaming. Othinus regarded him with a single blink of her eye before shaking her head.

"Let's do this again then."

Othinus clicked her fingers and in an instant, _the left arm that had been amputated _once more appeared in the socket where Othinus had ripped it from. Despite the blood that was covering the ground, it was as if the wound had never happened and Kamijou looked at his reconnected arm in surprise and shock.

"What are you – "

He started to ask however Othinus interrupted him, her voice overpowering his as she had the upper hand when it came to expressing herself due to her own throat not having being made hoarse from screaming.

"Break."

"What-?"

Othinus though didn't waste any time, again stabbing her right leg into the boy's reconnected left arm. Bone crunched underneath her raw power and Kamijou screamed once more. He tried to clutch his left arm with his right hand in order to touch Othinus but she merely rose her leg again, the action causing the arm to lop off, crushed bone and distorted muscle being seen through the eyes of 'Index' on the ground.

And yet 'she' still continued her advance, despite Kamijou's screams.

"My aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!"

Kamijou's entire body trembled, panting heavily as he tried to control whatever semblance he had of sanity within his mind but even so, Othinus merely clicked her fingers once again, the arm reappearing in the exact same space where it had once been. Kamijou regarded it in confusion despite his screaming, that confusion instantly turning to more fear and panic as he realised what it was that Othinus had planned.

And Index, watching the entire thing could not withhold her thoughts anymore.

_"Stop! Just stop it Othinus! Hasn't Touma been through enough?! Hasn't he suffered enough?! Just stop this now! Please….please….."_

Index felt her voice tremble and the tears continued falling down her face as 'Index' approached ever closer to the boy on the ground. Othinus regarded Kamijou once more, speaking the one word that she said before in a cold and emotionless voice.

"Break."

_"J-Just give in Touma! You don't have to suffer anymore! Just give in! I-I don't want to see you get hurt anymore Touma! Please, just once! Just this once! Think of yourself! You don't have to experience this pain anymore! Just give in! Do as Othinus says, don't worry about us! PLEASE!"_

Index screamed despite knowing that her voice would never be heard as she felt her entire body go cold at the words that Kamijou spat out amidst the blood, sweat and tears that ran down his entire body.

"Do…. your… worst."

_"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"_

Index screamed at the raw determination and steel will that was behind those words, an iron will that did not even consider the possibility of giving up even in the face of all this pain.

And it was painful to watch, knowing that there was only one thing to follow given the opponent that Kamijou was facing and precedence.

"Oh, you think this world was that bad? Please. I have _plenty of other cards in my deck_. But me killing you will not bring about the final push. Either you break here, or you die again. The choice is yours. I guess the wording of a pitiful insect of a human like you would use in this situation would be the final boss. It seems as though 'she' has made her final approach."

Kamijou frowned and instantly turned around however Index had already known exactly what was going to happen the moment that 'she' managed to reach Kamijou's left leg.

But it was too late to do anything.

'Index', the one on the brink of starvation, the one in the memory and the one that had lost all sense of rational thought and morals had finally reached 'her' target. 'She' grabbed Kamijou's left leg as the boy opened his eyes wide with fear and pain, that expression stabbing into Index's heart and soul as she saw the boy making that expression while looking at her.

_"N-No Touma! This isn't me! This isn't ME! Th-This is Othinus! Just run away Touma! Just run away!"_

Kamijou seemed to hear her cries as he instantly turned and faced Othinus in front of him as 'Index' continued to grab at the boy's leg, moving 'her' entire body upwards as 'she' used what strength 'she' had to climb up Kamijou's body as they both lay on the ground. Kamijou though did not retreat, instead making a mad scramble for the only place that he could have given the situation.

He once more moved forward to Othinus.

"GIVE IT BACK OTHINUS! You give me my fucking world back or I swear to God I will – "

_"__I _am God. Remember that you pitiful human. Scream until your voice runs dry. And the choice is yours. You break. Or you die. This isn't a negotiation."

Othinus didn't say another word as she sent her right leg into the boy's left arm once more, breaking bone as he screamed, trying to reach for it but Othinus immediately lifted up her leg, amputating the arm in a spray of blood, bone and muscle. Kamijou screamed, the entire ordeal pressing down on his mind. Whether he was conscious merely because his entire being rejected the mere thought of falling unconscious to Othinus's torment or because she had manipulated his body in some way to prevent him from doing so was unknown but Kamijou turned his face upwards to Othinus and grabbed at the ground with a trembling right hand.

"I _will _defeat you! I swear it!"

_"No! Run away Touma! This…this version of me is going to eat you! Attack me! Get me off you! Just do something! Just survive Touma!"_

'Index' reached the boy's chest now, crawling 'her' way upwards as 'her' breathing grew erratic. 'Her' goal was in front of 'her' now, the goal that 'she' wanted more than anything else. The salvation that would allow 'her' to satisfy 'her' hunger was literally within arm's reach and 'she' wanted it more than anything else.

'She' would do anything for that one salvation.

Even kill Kamijou Touma.

For that was how the world that had been changed worked.

Because that was what Othinus wished for.

"Othinus…"

_"Run away Touma! Just run away!"_

'Index' crawled 'her' way past Kamijou's chest, reaching for his collar bone as 'she' continued climbing, the weight of the girl meaning that Kamijou was unable to continue his own trek upwards as his progress slowed.

But even so, he never gave up.

"Othinus….!"

_"Just do something Touma! Hit me! Knock me away! Don't mind Othinus, just do something about me!"_

'Index' grabbed at the collar bone, pushing 'herself' upwards and reaching for the boy's face as 'she' touched where the boy's ear had once been. He screamed as 'Index' dug 'her' fingernails into the wound, turning his body in order to face the person on top of him as he used his right hand and whatever energy he had there to grab at 'Index' but never even once looked at 'her'.

Instead he kept his unwavering gaze fixed on the one person that he knew he had to defeat and the one person that he knew was the one responsible for all of this.

"Othinus!"

_"Push me away! Hurry up and do it Touma!"_

"Don't you even think about looking at me with that gaze you disgusting human. Break. Or die. That is it."

'Index' opened 'her' mouth as Kamijou kept his gaze on Othinus, trying to reach forward and grab Gungnir that was in front of him as Index fully realised the spot on the boy's body that 'Index' could fully reach where 'she' was. The intended target filled Index's mind with nothing but despair and loss as she screamed.

"_Stooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooopppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp_!"

'Index' didn't.

And 'she' sank 'her' teeth into the boy's left eye.

A squelching sound filled the air as the teeth immediately penetrated the cornea, a wet feeling coming through the connection of the tongue to the eye. Index felt herself gag as 'Index' perfectly recalled the exact sensation of the taste of the boy's eye, feeling as though her perfect memory right now was nothing more than a curse that allowed her to recall such terrors and hell that the boy went through.

Kamijou screamed, hitting 'Index' with his right hand and arm however the sensation of food in the form of Kamijou's body meant that 'Index' clung on with all of 'her' might, Index screaming as 'she' took another bite, sending 'her' teeth into the boy's destroyed left eye once more.

Blood vessels broke and 'Index' snatched up the boy's eye lens with 'her' tongue, chewing it as a cracking sound filled the air. Remains of the eye bled out from the boy's face, the screams dying as Kamijou's entire body started to lose strength, his right arm slumping to the ground as 'Index' tore out the eye with 'her' teeth, the optic nerves loosely hanging out from the eye socket like broken cables.

Blood streamed from the wound and 'Index' continued to chew the eye within 'her' mouth, Index on the verge of throwing up as 'she' perfectly recalled the sensation of such. The circular object crushed instantly as 'she' chewed, the entire thing rather tough but as blood streamed from 'her' mouth, 'Index' never cared as 'she' spotted 'her' next target, slowly moving towards it with a predatory elegance.

'She' moved slowly, savouring the boy's left eye as Kamijou turned and faced Othinus with his right, the optic nerve of his now missing left eye trying to move but having nothing to connect to. Squelching continued to come from the mouth of 'Index' as 'she' continued chewing as Othinus looked down at the opponent that hadn't just been defeated.

He had been undeniably slaughtered.

"It's not fair is it?"

Othinus said those words as they stabbed into Index when she heard them through the ears of 'Index'. Kamijou's body seemed to jerk underneath 'her' as he fully received those words head on as Othinus crouched, Index seeing it through the peripheral vision of 'Index'. Othinus though paid it no mind as she spoke once.

"All of this, you didn't deserve it did you? You don't deserve this pain. You were only trying to save everyone; so why do you have to go through this?"

Othinus, his tormentor and the one that was causing all of that pain cruelly asked those questions of him in the first place. Kamijou's body trembled beneath 'Index' as quiet sounds came from his mouth, sobs of both pain and sadness as the raw nature and truth of her words stabbed into him.

"It hurts doesn't it?"

Othinus seemed to be speaking compassionately and the image of her unstained body gave the impression that she was an angel, speaking from the heavens to give the boy who was hurting and in pain beloved salvation for his soul. Yet the demon that hid beneath her skin was known to that very same boy as Kamijou slowly spoke.

"…Of course it hurts."

If anything, that one admission was the one that broke Index then and there.

An inhumane wail erupted from her throat, incomprehensible yet she understood the pure emotion, pain and sorrow that was behind that very cry. Her entire body was stabbed into and she felt as though she would lose all sense of rationalisation for real now from that one simple statement.

"It hurts so much. Why…..why do I have to go through this?! What was I even trying to do that warranted this Othinus?! You can stop this! Please….just stop this. It hurts so much! It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts and the pain just won't stop…."

Kamijou's voice was soft and on the verge of breaking as Index screamed, each word adding to her breaking mentality. The boy beneath her had suffered, had felt pain beyond anything anyone else could have imagined and he had wanted it to stop.

He had had that one pure desire yet he had kept on going, for the simple sake that he wanted to save everyone and restore the world.

He had a wish so basic with a desire that was in compete contradiction with it yet he had ignored that desire just so he could grasp that wish in both of his hands. He had wanted to stop the pain so badly but he had thrown his own desires to the side and wanted to restore the world more than anything.

Even if it meant facing that same pain he didn't want to experience anymore.

Because surely, for Kamijou Touma, the fact that he could no longer see the smiles of everyone else was a larger pain than any Othinus could bestow on him.

"You can end this. Just break. You can finish this and end it all. Just. Break."

Othinus spoke softly as if speaking to a small child. Tears ran down Kamijou's face as he looked at her.

And he smiled and laughed.

It was a desperate smile, one that had no happiness behind it, only a nervousness. The laugh itself was hollow, something that held no fraction of emotion, a cold bellow of the boy's throat that had raw desire to escape this hell now.

And the fact that he could only do that only made the wails of Index even louder.

_"Stop it! Just stop it Othinus! Look at him! Look at Touma! Haven't you done enough!? Haven't you achieved your goal?! Leave him alone! JUST LEAVE HIM ALONE!"_

Yet the boy that only could only smile that false smile and laugh that hollow laugh spoke with tears in his one eye, fear on his face and with a clenched right fist.

"I…I don't want to die again…"

The raw desire behind the admission only made Index want to end the memory right then and there. She knew it was selfish and that it was stepping on Kamijou who had experienced this but as she could only sit and do nothing, she didn't want to experience this anymore.

She couldn't stand it.

She hadn't even experienced the pain he was feeling yet the only thing that she wanted to do was turn away.

Kamijou Touma did not want to die again. That raw admission, the pure feelings that were behind it filled the air but even Index recognised one emotion that was behind it, one emotion inside those words that made Othinus's heart freeze and Index's shatter.

It was resignation.

But not because he was giving up.

The steel despite the fear in his one eye told everyone that looked at it that Kamijou Touma here and now was not giving up. He would never give up, not as long as he had the enemy he saw in front of him and the desire to see everyone's smiles again.

No. It was resignation…..because he knew.

"…But we both know that I'm not breaking in this world."

He knew that he had lost and that this process was only doomed to repeat itself as Othinus tortured him mentally and physically in order to break him. He knew that in this situation, he had only two choices and that he had abandoned one of them.

Which meant that the other one was the only thing that could be applied in this situation.

"Then you will die. Quite horribly in fact."

And with those few words 'Index' moved, eyeing 'her' target with ferocious eyes as Index screamed for 'her' to stop. But 'she' never did as Othinus materialised what looked like a pocket watch out of nowhere, tapping the top of it and looking at it surprised. She turned and faced Kamijou on the ground, fear in his eye but the clenching of his right fist meant that even despite the horrible death that he was about to experience, he would still have the will to fight and oppose Othinus.

His desire to restore his world and his wish to see everyone's smiles again was simply that strong.

And he would continue this process, these deaths as many times as he needed just so he could achieve that one thing.

No matter the pain.

No matter his wish for it to stop.

No matter the deaths.

Kamijou Touma just had to move ever forward in order to make sure he could see those smiles again, despite what happened to him.

"Congratulations though. You've surpassed my counter. I guess this makes this Death #1,000,000. You get first prize." Othinus gave that cold remark as 'Index' opened 'her' blood-stained mouth once more, Index screaming and Kamijou Touma below 'her' finally taking the chance to try and grab Gungnir for the last and final time.

But he never reached it.

Just as 'Index' latched 'her' teeth around his throat.

_"No! Stop it! Let him go! LET HIM GO!"_

Index could feel 'her' teeth sink in the boy's flesh, the teeth penetrating through the skin and finally touching the boy's windpipe and the Adam's Apple within the throat as well.

'Her' teeth clamped around his Adam's Apple as 'her' jaw tightened, Index fully aware of each sensation that rocked 'her' body, the feeling of the boy's throat in 'her' mouth and the feeling of the windpipe within. Kamijou seemed to fully register what kind of death Othinus had planned for him as his eye went wide with fear but the pure exhaustion of the entire ordeal had left him completely drained, unable to even muster the energy to fight.

But he still continued to grab at the ground in order to touch Gungnir in front of him.

He gagged, trying to say something but 'Index' had already clamped 'her' teeth far beyond the Adam's Apple, closing his windpipe shut as he was unable to draw a breath or even speak. Index could feel the strength gathering in 'her' body and realised with horror that it was all about to end soon.

But unable to do anything but watch, she could do nothing to prevent this.

This was a memory after all.

_It had already happened._

_"STO – "_

'Index' tightened 'her' jaw, a crunching sound coming from Kamijou's neck as the windpipe was crushed. Index felt it give way underneath 'her' jaw, suppressing the scream that came her throat, only watching in horror as 'Index' like a dog threw 'her' head upwards and to the side, ripping out the boy's throat and revealing the gore beneath.

Blood erupted from the wound, the remains of Kamijou's throat within the mouth of 'Index', the larynx being in 'her' mouth as the interior of Kamijou's throat was made clear to Index watching. Kamijou tried to scream but the air never entered into his mouth, his vocal cord having being ripped out in the horrific action of 'Index'.

His face went white as he struggled to breathe, bubbles coming from his trachea and oesophagus as he tried to breathe but the air never reached his mouth, only pouring out from the open wound.

And 'Index' chewed, crushing the larynx in 'her' mouth as blood poured from 'her' face and dripped onto Kamijou's beneath 'her'.

All attempts to even grab Gungnir were now lost to the wind as Kamijou grabbed at his throat, clawing the air as if to try and grab it and stuff it into his throat but the wheezing that came from his throat (or where his throat had once been) made it clear that he could not be saved. The weight of 'Index' on top of him prevented movement as he struggled to breathe, his entire face only revealing how terrified and scared the boy was.

Not to mention how much pain he was experiencing.

Tears were running down his face as he tried to form words but nothing came out as the light that was in his eye gradually began to fade.

_"Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! T-Touma! Pl-please….please don't die…don't die…"_

Index realised the selfishness of the request the instant that she made it. What was she even saying? The boy had his left ankle amputated, his right leg crushed and ripped off, his right ear torn off, his left arm restored twice, only for it to be ripped out three times, had his eye eaten and now had his throat within 'her' mouth.

And even before that, he had seen the world descend into nothing more than a cannibalistic hell where his own family had not been saved. His friends and family had all lost their minds and he was the only one with the sense and rationale to fight Othinus, the one who had caused all this.

Yet he was the only one that wanted even that.

Kamijou Touma had to embrace death. The mere thought of survival in this situation was nothing more than a cruel concept. In order to truly save him, Kamijou Touma had to die.

Yet Index knew in her mind that she would never accept such. She did not want the boy to die, knowing in her heart that seeing such a sight would truly press down on her soul so viciously that she did not think it would recover.

But he had to die. He had to die to save him from the pain.

But Index did not want him to.

Yet he had to.

It was an endless cycle of Index's wishes against the reality in front of her as she let out a weak voice, the only sensation she was feeling being the crushing of the boy's larynx in 'her' throat as 'she' cruelly continued 'her' devouring.

_"Please don't die….."_

A wheezing came from the boy's throat as the light finally left his eye, the boy's body slumping as 'Index' did nothing more than chew the remains of the boy's throat, Index watching and trembling as she sobbed.

_"Please don't die….."_

Yet it was not to be. This had happened and Othinus regarded the scene in front of her coldly before sighing. She brought Gungnir in front of her, holding it up as the tip seemed to radiate a brilliant light.

"Let's do this again shall we?"

Those were her only words yet they immediately made Index turn to her and spit out the words hidden within her heart, tears running down her face the entire time.

_"Why Othinus?! WHY!? What did this prove!? You did it didn't you? You proved your point. You are omnipotent! You are the almighty! You are the ultimate victor! So just leave him alone! Just stop this! Stop all of this! Just…leave Touma alone… Please don't hurt him anymore…JUST STOP!"_

Index wailed as she screamed however in the back of her mind felt a disgusting relief at herself. Not because she was wishing for this to stop even though it had already happened.

She felt relieved because she knew that this was nothing more than a memory, given to her as Imagine Breaker erased the 'seal' of forgotten memories. But in turn as the memory had been erased by magic, it had been created in the first place by magic so the entire memory in itself would be erased, not by magic but by Imagine Breaker soon enough.

And that fact alone gave Index a salvation in that she would never have to view this scene again.

The horror that Index felt upon realising that she was glad that she could turn away from this, that she could merely skip to the end and never consider the pain that Kamijou had felt in this time, ignorant of it all, rocked her core. She was sick with herself, unable to look at herself in a positive light but still that feeling of relief that she would inevitably forget this experience made her happy.

And that in turn made her disgusted with herself.

She would never come to know of the pain Kamijou Touma had felt. He and Othinus would never tell her and she would remain ignorant of the pain that he had gone through just to see her smile again. Index would merely accept that he had made it through whatever means and leave it at that.

He would be silently screaming for someone to understand the pain that he had experienced yet no one would ever hear his call. Othinus knew of the pain but as his tormentor in this infinite hell, there was likely a small part of that pain that Kamijou kept to himself despite the resolution that had been reached.

And that in turn meant that Kamijou Touma would be the only one who had suffered when the world had been changed. He would be the only one that had cried tears of pain and suffering with no one there to heal or comfort him. The only thing that he had been given was more pain and suffering, escalating until Othinus at some point had changed her mind.

But the mere thought of her not seeing that pain, saving herself the pain of viewing what Kamijou had been through made Index _happy_.

It was disgusting and Index cried out despite not being able to influence the events of what had happened as she viewed it through the eyes of 'Index'.

_"No… I-I don't want to forget! I want to remember! How can I forget this memory!?"_

The light of Gungnir started to envelop the surroundings but even so Index never stopped her screaming.

_"Touma suffered! He still is! And you think that I can just turn my eyes away from that?! He's the one that has been hurting out of the most of us and yet he never thought to end it by just giving up. I don't want to turn away that! I want to be there for Touma, whenever he cries and is in pain. Right now, he is suffering!"_

Nothing changed as the light started to envelop more and more, surrounding the vision of 'Index' as 'she' continued to feast on the throat of Kamijou.

_"You did this Othinus! You can see it in his eyes whenever he thinks about this! He knows that he is in pain and he knows that he is still suffering! Yet he maintains a smile as to not worry everyone else and takes on that entire burden alone. And he forgave you! After everything you did, he forgave you! But he's still suffering! H-How can I just ignore that!? How can I just leave Touma to suffer because I don't want to see this memory ever again!? I-I don't want to forget! Don't make me forget!"_

Index knew though, in her very gut that once Gungnir erased everything that it would not be the case. The world would change, the memory would be erased and Index would forget everything that she had seen in this memory. She would never be the wiser and Index felt pain in her heart at the recollection of an idiom that only seemed so at home with what she was feeling.

Ignorance is bliss.

Not knowing what had happened to Touma during this time would surely make her happy. She would only look at the result and pass off whatever had happened as 'Touma being fine'. She would think that he would get over it and then leave the issue at that.

But there was no way that was going to happen. Even if Kamijou managed to fill his mind with his normal life or be distracted by solving whatever problems came to him, there would always be a small memory in the back of his mind of this hell.

There would always be a memory of the pain he had faced and the suffering he had endured.

And in order to protect those around him, he would never utter a word.

He would suffer alone. Othinus his tormentor and Understander would surely be there for him as she had suffered as well but there were surely some things that he would never tell her in order to prevent her from feeling guilt over what she had done to him.

So the only chance that Kamijou Touma had of being saved from those experiences lay in these memories.

Yet they were doomed to be erased.

And he was doomed to never have anyone comfort him for the hells he had experienced. He would scream silently, internally and no one would be the wiser.

_"It's not fair! IT'S NOT FAIR! Don't make me forget! Don't make me ignore that pained smile! Touma is suffering and there's nothing that I can do about it unless I keep this memory! I don't want to forget!"_

The memory was fading.

Index could feel that instinctively as she felt as though the corners of her mind were slowly fading away as the memory receded and was being erased forever by Imagine Breaker.

But even so her screams and tears resounded.

_"Why is Touma the only one not saved?! Why is he the one that has to hurt more Othinus?! Why did you do this?! Why is Touma the only one left behind in all of this? Are you ignorant of his suffering? Why is it that he holds everything to himself and never speaks? Can't he see that people want to save him!? Why is he so obsessed with keeping things to himself to save everyone!? What about his smile!? WHAT ABOUT HIS SMILE OTHINUS!? You took that away from him! You did this!"_

Index's voice gained an aspect of hate as she looked at Othinus. She saw Gungnir's light overtake everything.

_"WHY IS TOUMA THE ONLY ONE NOT SAVED?!"_

Index screamed that out loud –

* * *

Index awoke with a start, immediately stepping back and hitting her back against the wall. Sweat covered her face as she felt as though her entire body was on the verge of collapsing. Her breathing was heavy, erratic and she could feel immense emotional pain as if she had seen something that she could not accept in her mind that she was somehow missing.

Index turned and assessed her surroundings, Kamijou Touma sleeping on the bed yet slowly stirring due to the sudden noise Index had made. Othinus was sleeping on the blanket and was slowly awakening as well due to the noise.

There was something that she could not forget.

Index knew that deep in her soul but her erratic breathing took her attention as she tried to calm her racing heart. It beat so fast that it hurt but Index could definitely tell that there was some kind of hole in her heart as she frowned to herself.

There was something that she could not forget.

She gulped, wiping the sweat from her face however noticed with scared eyes that her hands were trembling. No, it was not just her hands.

Her entire body was trembling right down to its very core as an intense fear coiled around Index as she held her hands around her entire body, hugging herself to give herself some warmth to counter the sudden cold chill she felt.

There was something that she could not forget.

But for the life of her, Index could not remember what it was.

That one realisation seemed to only make the fear coiling around Index's body increase as it hit her hard. She visibly slid down the wall in shock at the sudden fear, never remembering where in the world she had this fear come from nor why it was attacking her like this. Was there something wrong? Was there something so scary that her mind had erased it?

Index clutched at her habit's chest area and frowned, noting that the material was wet. No, that was not the right word to really describe it.

It was sopping.

It was as if she had been standing out in the rain for an eternity as she frowned, clutching at the material and feeling the water being rung out. What in the world had happened? And why was she so wet? It made no sense.

Index brought her hands up to her face, confusion only resounding in her mind. Her face was soaked. However only the bottom half as she trailed her hands up to where the water had started, feeling the edges of her eyes and tilting her head. The edges of her eyes hurt to the touch and Index blinked, noticing for the first time that her vision was somewhat blurry.

She wiped her face with her habit sleeve and noted that her sleeve was in a similar condition to the chest of her habit, utter lack of comprehension filling her now.

She had been…. crying?

Why?

And from the amount of water and the way her eyes stun, it was not something that had been over something small. She had balled her eyes out over something that she could not remember. What in the world was it? The only thing that she could think of was that she had seen Touma die but he was right in front of her so she immediately discarded the idea.

_She tossed it away and never thought to consider it again._

Index rose to her feet, rubbing her eyes and looking shocked at the sight of where she had been resting her head. The entire sheet was sopping as well as Othinus fully stirred now, having put her head on the wet patch and opening her one eye.

"Huh? Oh, it's just you. Please don't tell me that cat is with you. …What is this wet patch? That human didn't wet the bed did he?" Othinus said while looking at Kamijou who was also stirring, wiping the sleep out of his eyes as Othinus turned to face Index to address her fully.

"Actually, how long have you been – "

Index turned to face Othinus as the former Magic God started to ask her a question however she froze. Index blinked a few times, also to get the fragments of tears she had no idea what the cause of was, as Othinus stared at her, face frozen in what looked like pure fear. It seemed as though she was absolutely terrified of the nun as Index tilted her head in confusion.

Honestly, what was up with today? She had woken up with her habit sopping after literally having cried her eyes out and now Othinus was looking at her as if she had seen a ghost. What was it?

"What is it?" asked Index. "Is it the tears? I have no idea how they happened though, I just woke up like this."

"You….. aren't aware of your expression?" Othinus asked her as she gulped to which Index frowned, tugging at her own cheek a bit.

"I'm not making a funny face am I?"

"…Never mind."

Othinus said that as she turned away, feeling something rising in her gut that she knew she would never get rid of. The scene that she had just witnessed was so out of place that even she felt sick but it was clear that Index herself was not conscious of the expression that she had made when she had looked at Othinus.

And Othinus was somewhat glad that was the case.

The raw hate and malice that was behind the expression as Index looked at Othinus seemed so at odds with the otherwise pure nun that it visibly disturbed the former Magic God. Othinus had no idea why the nun was looking at her like that but any possible reasons only chilled her to the core.

She gulped and turned back to the nun, seeing that the expression had died however it haunted the back of her mind like a ghost.

"What are you guys doing?" Kamijou mumbled as he opened his eyes, rubbing them fully and turned to the two girls. "You're so lo – What the!? Wh-What is this wet patch on the bed!? Don't tell me I wet it!? Are you telling me my bladder functions didn't survive Denmark?! I've had no problems until now!"

Kamijou immediately jumped to a ridiculous conclusion (or perhaps it wasn't so ridiculous given what he had been through in Denmark and his misfortune) as he looked at the wet patch as Index seemed to blush slightly. She fidgeted and as the boy was still hospitalised felt as though he deserved a break and not have false thoughts placed into his head that would surely press down on his soul and what he thought of his maturity.

"No Touma, that was me."

"…. You wet the bed?" Kamijou asked carefully while slowly backing away from the nun as the blush on her face seemed to increase.

"Wh-what? No! How can you even suggest such a thing!? A-As a pious nun, the Lord above has prevented me from ever wetting the bed once!"

"I'm not too sure God has anything to do with pissing yourself."

"How can you be so blunt about this Touma!? Honestly, you have no delicacy at all! Now, I have no idea how it happened, but it seemed as though I was crying. I have no idea why though but it seemed like I was doing it for a while."

"You were…crying?" Kamijou immediately approached Index to get closer to her, looking at her in order to inspect the girl's eyes. Indeed, they seemed puffy, extremely so as if she had been crying for a long time. The wet sheet and her habit also indicated such but something pressed on his soul as he looked at her like that.

"Are you OK? Is something wrong?" he asked her to which Index crossed her arms and frowned.

"I don't know. I'm not sure what I was crying about Touma. But it feels like…I don't know. Like I'm missing something that I should be remembering. Something that was worth crying over. But I can't remember it."

"Do you want to?" asked Kamijou in concern. "I-I mean I don't want to tell you what you should remember or not, but if it was something that made you cry that badly... And if it's something I can help with….."

"I'm not too sure, whether I want to remember that is. I'm sure it will come to me in time if anything. I do have perfect memory after all. But Touma. I have to say that your habit of wanting to take on a girl's problems by yourself without telling anyone of yours is pretty nasty." Index gave Kamijou a lecture as the boy looked at her face intently.

"I just don't want to see you down in the dumps over something Index and not smiling. Especially when there might be something I can do about it. Are you sure it's something I can't help with?" Kamijou pressed the issue as Index's face went red for a different reason.

"I-I said I don't remember."

"But if you do…. And if it's something I can help with, I don't want you to keep it to yourself. Call it nosy, a bad habit or whatever but I don't want to see you take on something all alone Index _when there is the chance that I can help_. Can you allow me that? Just that?"

Index stared at the boy, feeling his gaze wear down the fear and the chill that came over her, filling it with warmth as she smiled and nodded.

"I will Touma."

"Thank you." Kamijou said that as he grinned while in his hospital bed, reaching over and touching Index's head and rubbing it slightly. The girl tried to hide how she enjoyed it and instead changed the topic entirely as she cleared her throat.

"But you're not one to talk Touma about things that you keep to yourself. After all, I know the world was destroyed and changed. What exactly did you see in that changed world?"

Othinus jumped at the question and stared at Index however the girl never noticed. In fact, she was surprised the words had come out of her mouth in the first place. It was as if something had encouraged her to say the words without her really wanting to say them. It was if some part of her wanted to ask that question she had before for some reason despite her not wanting to.

Kamijou blinked in surprise and waved a hand in front of his face. He smiled as he spoke however there was nothing behind it, an emptiness that indicated that he truly felt nothing when he spoke. In fact, it was as if the words he was saying were not reaching Index at all, the contradiction of what he was trying to express and what he was actually expressing meaning that his words held no meaning whatsoever.

"Ah, well nothing really. Just some stuff. It's not really _that big of a deal_."

Kamijou Touma said those words yet Index stared at the boy, feeling her chest tighten and something within her scream even though she didn't understand what it was that she was looking at.

The only thing that she could do was wonder _why Kamijou Touma looked so pained when he said that_.

* * *

**….I told you it was M rated. I do believe I warned you that I brought out my inner sadist so if you reached here after reading everything, you understand fully what I meant.**

**There are a bunch of things that I want to say about this. Firstly, if you're thinking about 'timeline' this world that Index was recalling would have been after the Beta World but before the Omega. I think it could have gone after the Omega World as well but then you would have to take out all of Touma's dialogue to Othinus as during then he was only fighting her for himself and not for others.**

**So what did you think? In the novel, there's a single line that describes Touma having to 'distribute his flesh' to others in the hells that Othinus gives him so in a way this is an extension of that. I sort of wanted to give a world that Index could view as a memory and clearly see how it was trying to crush him. While this world clearly gave a type of despair, seeing the Omega World would have given that same despair but the fact he was 'saved' in that world despite his pain immediately made me discount the idea of including that world.**

**Here, Touma lost. I hope that's clear. He did so in a way that indicated that there was no fight whatsoever. He fought in that world for 2 years yet the moment that he met Othinus, he was taken out incredibly easily. I wanted to create that divide and have Index watch that, only to fall into despair as she saw Touma getting eaten. And it's only made worse in the fact that 'she' is eating him.**

**I hope that whole memory thing with Index watching the memory and 'Index' experiencing it didn't throw you off too much. But when you recall a memory, you look through your own eyes so does that mean there is you recalling the memory and 'you' who in the past experienced it? It's strange to write it like that and try to explain something like that that we've all done. But if anything, as you read this, I hope that Index's and Touma's despair you really felt and you felt struck your core. If anything I ask for, it would definitely have to be that so hopefully I managed to convey those emotions in a way that was received by you. **

**As for the title, you can probably tell why it was called the Silent Screams. After all, Touma suffered and there's no way that he's OK. Just seeing how he reacts to St. Germain when they meet indicates that his entire mind was rocked by the experiences Othinus put him through and never once did he tell anyone about them. He won't tell Othinus as to avoid her feeling guilty for what she did to him and not anyone else because they can't possibly understand his pain.**

**Even Will-tan only has an inkling of what he went through but seeing things from her perspective as Touma is dying left, right and centre might be another way to approach this. But even then, he died WAY more times than 10,031 times and even then, some of those deaths smashed him mentally and emotionally. I went for a more physical destruction here as you can see.**

**The title also applies to Index as well, quite obviously. There is nothing she can do as she watches Touma being devoured and the fact that she knows she'll forget the memory only adds to that. I always wondered what happened to the 'memories' that Othinus created in the changed world as technically they would have been erased and created by magic so I had Imagine Breaker act in the way it did.**

**If at any point, you covered your eyes while looking at this, turned away, felt 'I really want to skip this bit' or just yelled "WHAT THE HELL!? HIS EYE?!" then I think I did what I had to successfully. Intuitively I wanted to create a situation where you just want to turn away but know that Touma could not do so yet did not break. In hindsight though, this was fairly mild. I debated chucking Touma in a wood chipper, ripping off his lower jaw, barbecuing his ribs and all sorts of stuff but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I guess even the point affected me right?**

**And yet you have to consider that it is entirely possible Othinus put him in this world just to break him yet despite the time he spent there, what he experienced, the despair, the sensation of getting eaten, he still fought time and time again in order to defeat Othinus until he finally did so. I think looking at this chapter and how much Touma went through (or could have gone through) in ONE world where there were HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS makes Touma a real MVP and a great main character. Good job Kamachi and thank you for NT 9.**

**It was really the divide that I wanted to delve into here that stuck with me. The divide mainly between Touma against Othinus and the connection that they have against how people can only really look at that connection and not understand it at all. Touma and Othinus are connected through their respective suffering but the only way for anyone to really understand that is to really experience the same thing themselves. Othinus herself wanted someone to understand her for her pain however it was inflicted by other people towards her with no real directed malice. The case though is entirely different for Touma who experienced malice that was directly made to kill him.**

**In this sense, while they are Understanders of each other, the extent to which they can sympathise with each other differs a little bit, at least in my book. With the fact that Othinus tortured Touma endlessly, while Othinus understands Touma from that perspective much like he does with her, there is a small part of him that she can't fully grasp because of the difference in what they faced and who caused it.**

**I gave Touma some Silent screams of his own in the fact that he can't be understood in the way that he suffered. He won't talk to Othinus about it because of the guilt that she surely feels about it nor can be afford to talk to anyone else about it because they would not understand and also because he doesn't want them to to avoid them from feeling the same pain.**

**While Index was the one that had Silent Screams of her own in that they were never heard, it was really more applying to Touma as he screams in the worlds that only he and Othinus shared as well as the burden that he applies to himself in that he says nothing about his pain to others. This was really a heavy topic to deal with at the heart of the matter so I hope that for those of you that ended up reading this that you look at what I did and reflect on what it means from the perspective of a character and Touma here as a hero. Or you could just say that I'm a sadist and reflect on that.**

**Well that's all from me. I hope you enjoyed (can you really do that for this one?) and considered the question of "Wow, Touma could have gone through all of this couldn't he?" And then thought of the fact that he ultimately crushed Othinus's mind by appealing to her and forgave her, something that should have been impossible.**

**Yet he did it. And we love him for it.**

**If you were interested in some videos I was listening to that I think really capture the feel of NT 9 and suffering they would be the MAD Fight for Hero Side and Re: Zero's first opening respectively.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please.**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**I really went for it didn't I? I embraced my inner sadist and it turned out like this, where suffering was the best girl. Touma x suffering for the win! I think I'll keep this part of me locked up for a while so I can spare Touma some pain.**

**HAPPY NEW YEAR! …..It feels REALLY out of place given what I just posted though….**

**Mr Question Mark.**


	42. The Number One Girl

**THE FOLLOWING CHAPTER IS T RATED FOR LIGHTHEARTEDNESS AND FLUFFINESS. THERE WON'T BE ANY OF THE SUFFERING I PULLED LAST CHAPTER SO SIGH IN RELIEF!**

**I'll go up and say this. This is something that I've wanted to do for a while given personal preference however have been strictly hated for it.**

**But who cares!? These sorts of one-shots give way to crack fics and ideas that make little sense and I really wanted to do this and there is nothing stopping me from doing so! Heads up though, for those that are reading, if you look at the title down below and shake your head, something that another writer known as Darkbetrayer may be doing right about now, then this probably isn't for you.**

**But dealing with these types of crack ideas is what makes this fun to a massive extent so I hope your minds, bodies and souls are ready for this! After all, this is sort of based on an April Fool's joke that happened in 2015 if you remember that far but for those that do, you'll know where this is going.**

**Before we begin though, I'll keep this short just because I've wanted to do this for a while and have found it hard to put it in ACUL0 (I'm not giving up though!), and just want to get straight into it.**

**Yet here is the usual Q &amp; A. Given the …nature of last chapter I think that there will be a lot of these so if you felt that there was something that you wanted addressed and felt then it was probably something that other people did as well given last chapter so there will be a pretty detailed coverage in this section of the questions and the like where I can afford it:**

**malandy: Most of the confusing stuff from last chapter did in fact come from the point about Index's memory being the focus of the story. From a large perspective, the 'memory' that she takes into herself is something that she should already know however as it was erased from magic, it's sort of like she's viewing it from an external perspective for the first time when she sees it again. Yet she has to remember it right? It's this sort of distinction and confusion that made the setting with Index rather hard. Hopefully it was smoothed over well though.**

**pop2ww: This reaction! This is exactly what I was going for when it came to last chapter, not a large sense of "This chapter was terribly/wonderfully written" but more of the sense of "Fuck" and "Shit" that you experienced. In terms of how Touma came into this, the BTL setting made it sort of hard to really delve into the aftermath and it's something that I really plan to cover heavily in ACUL0 when the idea comes up again so your questions and concerns will definitely be answered there. The Silent Screams then in a way were three words that could be used to really summarise not only what Touma felt last chapter but also Index amidst it all. In real life is there a chance of cannibalisation happening? I think it would largely depend on the situation but I am pretty sure that not everyone thinks like I do and thus I have to painfully say that I can see this sort of scene happening in real life. Not everyone thinks along the lines of "Eating is people is wrong" but even if they did, there comes a point where the rational mentality of someone can just snap which would make this type of scene entirely possible. Index then was definitely someone that suffered perhaps a bit more than Touma. For Touma experiencing the entire thing, he is entirely focused on Othinus and realises that it is her causing the distortion but for Index, the only thing that she can focus on is Touma dying and nothing else. for Index in her position, she can't look and analyse what is happening and objectify it; she can only see it for what it is as Touma dying and do nothing about it. Which in a sense makes the title, as you said more applicable to Index than Touma, especially since her screams disappear and become 'silent'. But that gap between Touma and Othinus only adds to his pain which is the most heart-breaking thing. But for everything that you said, I think that all of your points really touched upon heavily what I was trying to do last chapter.**

**Maldice: I felt as though the design that most matched her was that of Philuffy Aingram from Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle except her long blue hair, green eyes and wearing glasses. I also feel that given the similarities between the characters that the curse that was placed upon Maldice fits well with her character in the larger scope of things as well. Maldice was created to be a tragic character so I gave her an appearance that made one think that she did not have the capabilities of being a villain. In other words, save for the curse that was placed upon her and being forced into the world or Magic, she was supposed to be someone that did not belong otherwise there. Given that Hector fell in love with her despite it all, if anything the character trait that bests suits her had she not been cursed would have been the classic 'large breasted student council president' who has the capability of kind however views her position in contempt because of her curse. If anything, this was the main idea in my mind when I created her.**

**whwsms: If anything, the one thing that I am glad about when you read last chapter was that aftertaste. I didn't want you to feel good about the chapter at all: I wanted you to really look and it and WANT to turn away only to know in your mind that even if you skipped the damn thing that Touma would have gone through it anyway. Thus, if you wanted to, think of yourself as an Index character and then imagine who you would react 'seeing' it for yourself. That type of gap closing is something that I really wanted to get across for last chapter and I'm glad that it touched you in some way. As for your suggestion for the Day the World Cried…let's just say that Part 2 of the Futures Kaleidoscope touches upon it a lot more. Othinus's hell though would never even remotely end there if everyone remembered what she did to Touma…**

**UCCMaster: I hope that you didn't get in trouble with your co-workers… Anyway, for the most part I think that Mikoto and Misaki would have had similar but different reactions to what Touma went through but the whole 'memory' explanation fit better with Index especially when it came to the Magic side of things. Mikoto and other Science side members might just think of it as some sick dream.**

**Guest X: You…want a Part 2 of this? Part of me, when I was thinking of the original idea was that I wanted to have the Will's first person perspective of this as it was happening however the barrier to that is then justifying that the will does NOTHING while this is happening. It might be an interesting experiment in the scope of thing to try but the whole /return and /backscape speech might get annoying after a while…**

**wildarms13: Well it WAS your request! So the only thing that I am happy about is that you enjoyed it. Even though…well….Touma died. As for a chapter where Othinus confronts Touma or the other way around on what happened, I think I am going to leave that for a later stage and cover it in another one-shot. I mean, seeing The Silent Screams II would really trigger A LOT of people you know? But I do plan on having a separate one-shot series to deal with this type pf aftermath as well as cover it in ACUL0 too.**

**UnassumingMob: Thank you so much for your kind words regarding my projects. You have no idea how much they are appreciated. Something like last chapter though will be locked up inside of me and probably won't make an appearance in any chapters soon so rest assured.**

**FreakFactor: You wanted me to mention Himegami…even though she died? Well it was more so the fact that the world has descended into that type of hell that was more of the pressure point instead of the entire 'Who ate who' type of question. Although writing an entire story on just this one hell would be….'fun'. And YES! I knew that there was a manga where Accelerator is an idol. By the Gods, I am enjoying it, even though it is monthly which is a disappointment. Certainly one of the stranger spin offs.**

**seiker: Sorry that you read it that early in the morning last chapter though. Most of the things that I wanted to cover I couldn't really do in BTL so I plan to cover them on ACUL0 but because of the nature of that story, I can stretch out the suffering meaning that there won't be THAT much blood and stuff. However, it will be present but not to the same extent. In a way, all writers of Index support Touma x suffering in some way.**

**Pinto52: Thank you so much for your kind words on the matter. Hopefully the fact that this followed more of the novels was not something that was jarring despite it all and that you were fully engaged in the 'atmosphere' of the entire thing.**

**Horizon Dreamer: I sort of agree with you in terms of what you say about Touma forgiving Othinus however it is in his character. Not only that but the two of them spent ages with nothing but massacres so I feel as though that sort of sparked a sense of Touma thinking that if he hated Othinus the entire time then he spent all that time dying and just hating Othinus. I suppose he took it in his heart to forgive because he did not want to be swallowed up by nothing but hate you know? Touma needs a break though…..and this is me saying that. Yandere Mikoto is best Mikoto.**

**Anon Guest: Poor, poor Mongo. "At least we didn't say anything about what happened in the next world!" "Booooooooooo!"**

**SomethingTimeyWimey: I'm glad that you felt it was horrifying, it was really the very core of the entire chapter and just a sense of wrongness over the entire thing was supposed to permeate through you to the very core. But don't worry, the 'theme' wasn't really sins and the like but rather the sense of utter hopelessness so there won't be another six phases to cover the other sins. Although…..the world of Lust wouldn't be that bad right?**

**tenryu71: As a trope, the personification of suffering would be aa yandere. A 'human' personified as suffering already exists though, in another series written by Kamachi known as Blood-Sign. What I wrote here does not even compare to the shit that the White Queen can pull…..**

**vietnamese guy: Firstly, I want to say that your reaction was something that definitely hit the mark of what I was going for. Secondly, I want to apologise given the poor timing. When I released the chapter I sort of felt "Yeah….that was a bad idea." Although 2nd!? Well I'll take it were I can get it. But if anything, what you have said is exactly what I was going for. The sense of just "Leave Touma alone you motherfucker!" and "Just stop it!". And I put those emotions into Index and I feel as though everything that you said really resonated with what she was screaming all of last chapter. So I guess thank you for giving me exactly what I wanted and hopefully this will sooth the wound that you felt after last chapter. But seriously, thank you for your words and I promise that I won't do something this bad for a while. Also, again sorry for upsetting you.**

**Agent Nine: I didn't mind your rant! In fact, the fact that you were triggered was what I was going for, the entire sense of just "This is so wrong" and "I can't accept this" from the standpoint of a character. And this is the reader remembering it so imagine what would have happened if Index remembered? And yes, I agree with you. We have no idea how long Touma spent in those worlds however from the fact that we know that there were hundreds of billions, assuming that he spent a minute in each one (unlikely given what we know) and taking only 100 billion as our (lowest) guess for the amount of worlds, then Touma spent 190,258.75 years just dying. And that's the OPTIMISTIC view. Othinus noted in one volume that basically the time that he spent there was 'infinite' so I think that we can just assume that he spent an average of a year per world. So, you felt that 730 days was bad. But in reality, one second that passed for everyone else was something skin to hundreds of billions of years if not more for Touma just suffering. Reflect on that for a bit. And the answer to the question of "hoe can Touma not be brain dead after everything" was not really something that I could cover in BTL but something I plan to cover in ACUL0. Unfortunately given the light novel format Kamachi uses, it's unlikely that this will ever be addressed so I hope that when I use this idea in ACUL0 that you can come to have the same respect for Touma and horror that you felt here again. But thank you for your words nonetheless. And those questions are all things that I will definitely answer when I can do so looking at the larger format of ACUL0 so keep them in mind! And more than anything, Index not remembering anything at all is the kicker. It's the blow to Touma in that no one can help him through this pain and what constitutes the Silent Screams that come from him. And yeah… Touma should be in therapy. And I'll get around to that come ACUL0…**

**RandomReview: Your opinion of last chapter being pointless isn't wrong. And that sort of tangible nothingness was what I wanted you to be left with at the end of the day. What Index went through and the fact that she feels relief in knowing that this will all end destroyed anything that she should have felt. However she could not must ignore what was happening before her eyes despite realising that nothing she said or did would amount to anything. Index's presence and everything she said had no meaning in the scope of things and she came in with nothing and left with nothing as well. So where does that leave the people that do remember what happened? Othinus feels as though Touma is fine and he is going to continue to act that way for the sake of others. In the end, the ultimate suffering is that no matter how much Touma suffered, in the end there was that pointlessness to it all in that he actually gained nothing in the scope of things. The entirety of NT 9 was nothing more than Othinus's wish being fulfilled and what does Touma get out of it. Trauma and suffering and in the end, as you said nothing but pointlessness in his conclusion. So I won't say that you are wrong but I did want you to feel as though Touma is the one that gets nothing out of this but instead is left by himself once again to suffer. Although 'gore porn' was definitely an amusing way to put it! I didn't really want to cover numerous phases though given that I wanted everything to end as it did. but largely, I intend to add 'point' to the story when I add this sort of thing in ACUL0 but what you do when I tell you that is up to you. thank you though for your honest words and opinions.**

**And the thanks. I'd first like to thank PokeRescue18 for his work here. It's really been appreciated despite the stupid and ridiculous ideas that I end up coming up with.**

**And I'd also like to thank you, the reader. If you have reached this stage and read to the bottom of this, then kudos for you. You deserve a pat on the back and you have my utmost respect.**

**But enough of this! For those that want to continue with this, then I hope that you enjoy to the fullest. Keep in mind though, you might want to turn your brain off just for safety reasons!**

**And I hope you enjoy the chapter's fluffiness.**

**Mr Question Mark.**

* * *

A Certain Scientific Suzushina Yuriko. _First_Experience_of_Reverse_Gender._

_The train yard in District 17 was dark. Flames sprung up from the ground in all directions and the ruins of the train yard itself had been made into that state from the people that currently stood in front of each other._

_One had their face clenched with pain._

_The other had their fists clenched in order to deal pain._

_"Grit your teeth strongest!"_

_Their eyes met as they stared at each other, the beings known as Kamijou Touma and 'Accelerator' staring each other down, the latter doing so in fear and the former doing so with nothing more than a strong determination in his eyes._

_He shouted and let the words fly, strength and determination in them despite the physical state he was in._

_"You're going to get a good taste of my weakest!"_

_The fist flew and 'Accelerator' went wide eyed as the fist connected. Blood flew from where it struck, the nose bleeding as the force of the blow flung 'Accelerator' backwards, limbs flailing in all directions._

_(I….It's over….)_

_'Accelerator' had that one thought as the fist sent pain rocketing through their body, blurring their consciousness and turning the last remnants of their thoughts into a massive mess._

_(I…lost…..)_

_However even then, it seemed as though the true battle had yet to be finished._

_Without any warning, the fist suddenly opened, grabbing 'Accelerator' by the front of the shirt. Eyes wide, they turned to face Kamijou who had his bloodied face split into a wide grin as he stared at his opponent. His gaze told them that he had yet to finish, that the final blow had yet to be dealt even though it was clear who was the victor here._

_Yet the gaze of Kamijou Touma indicated that this fight was far from over._

_"And you'll be doing so in more ways than one!"_

_'Accelerator' could not even show the shock on their face as Kamijou pulled them closer. Fear of pain rocked their body as they turned their head which had no energy behind it in the direction of the boy's left fist. Kamijou had a strange right hand such that even the power of 'Accelerator' didn't stand a chance. At this close range that he was touching them, the power of 'Accelerator', which was also called Accelerator, would be negated, allowing the boy to strike his opponent once more in the face._

_However, 'Accelerator' noted that the left fist was not clenched, only rising up and joining the right as it clenched the front of their chest._

_(Wha-?)_

_That was the only thought that they had as the boy in front of 'Accelerator' instantly pulled on the cloth that he gripped, pulling 'Accelerator' towards him. Instantly, the distance that had separated the two bitter opponents was negated, much like 'Accelerator's' power, going to zero as the boy pulled his opponent closer._

_And there was one detail about him that 'Accelerator' did not, could not miss._

_And that was the fact that 'Accelerator' was being pulled towards the boy's lips._

_Instantly realising the nefarious plan, 'Accelerator's' eyes went wide however there was nothing that they could do against that killer right hand that had negated their powers. The only thing that they could do was endure whatever was to come as the distance truly became zero now._

_And it did so with the lips of Kamijou Touma meeting that of 'Accelerator's' as the strongest got a good 'taste' of the weakest._

* * *

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Motherfuckeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!"

That scream erupted into the air as 'Accelerator' rolled off the couch that they were sleeping on, landing on the floor panting heavily as they looked all around them in order to see if there was anyone that had seen that particular incident.

No one was around, the apartment that was owned by Yomikawa Aiho being completely empty as 'Accelerator' breathed heavily, catching themselves on the sofa that they had fallen asleep on as they slowly stood up. Their cane sat to the side but 'Accelerator' paid it no mind, only focusing on what had just transpired within their own mind.

"It's just a dream. A terrible, horrible dream."

They said that over and over again however they could feel a strange warmth on the corner of their cheeks, something that they instantly wanted to go away but did not have the knowledge to do so. 'Accelerator' tried to form words however they came out as nothing more than a confused splutter as they sighed.

It wasn't just their face that had undergone a change after experiencing that dream. Despite the warmth there 'Accelerator' could definitely hear their heart beating in their ears as they slowly sat down on the couch that they had fallen off and slowly moved their hand to their chest in order to determine just how fast their heart was racing.

And as they did so, they noticed (although with some anger behind it) that the _small protrusions coming from their chest indicated that their small breasts had yet to grow since yesterday._

It was ridiculous to think that breasts could grow an additional cup size in one day despite what anyone said about the Bust Upper rumours but as far as 'Accelerator' was concerned, the fact that they were a late bloomer and still such annoyed them to no end.

It created all sorts of confusion, especially given that 'Accelerator' preferred to wear less frilly clothes such as normal shirts and jeans instead of dresses and camisoles that were more indicators of someone's gender if one were to look at them and make a first impression. If you heard about someone wearing jeans and a shirt one automatically thought they were a male despite females being able to wear the same clothes and if one wore a dress or a camisole, one tended to think that they were female.

It was like that and if you heard about someone wearing a dress or a camisole you were unlikely to think that they were a male even though when someone wore jeans and a shirt they could be either male or female.

As such, whenever 'Accelerator' walked around their home of Academy City, it was not unusual for people to think that they were male merely because they liked to wear trousers and shirts.

In reality though, the gender of the #1 Level 5 esper was hardly male despite what their appearance might indicate.

Yes.

It went without saying that the #1 Level 5 esper, 'Accelerator' was indeed _female_.

The constant confusion that people made about her gender pissed her off however she felt as though she would drop dead from embarrassment if someone saw her, regardless of whether they were a stranger or not in a dress or something girly. She wore those types of clothes from time to time however only on days where she did not expect to go out into the City.

On any other occasion, whenever she had previously gone out and been seen by someone when she was wearing such girly clothes, she hadn't cared one bit. If they made any comment about her looking like a girl when they thought she was a boy, Accelerator ripped them to shreds.

No, it had only been recently that she had been embarrassed to go out in public wearing girly clothes. In fact, she knew exactly when her thought processes had slowly started to switch over from 'not caring about wearing girly clothes' to 'being embarrassed when she was seen in them'.

And it had all started on that one fateful day, during the Level 6 Shift on August 21st.

The day where one person, someone that she did not know in the slightest had called her by her name that she had entirely forgotten and had not heard in years.

While she had never seen the file itself, it seemed as though there were some papers that the boy had found in Misaka Mikoto's student dorm pertaining to the Level 6 Shift. They had outlined the project in some detail although there was one detail that the boy had picked out, that being the names of the 7 Level 5s and their possible probability of reaching Level 6. **[1]**

Naturally while all the names of the Level 5s had been given in the report, the boy had only focused upon one name in particular.

Accelerator had no idea that her name was still given in the files within Academy City, in fact the scientists that she had worked with had never called her by her name, to the extent that she had forgotten it but the fact was that it was there. Yet when the boy had approached her in the train yard in District 17 so long ago, she recalled the exact words that he had said.

_"…Get away from her."_

Accelerator remembered that she had been surprised but even more so as the boy had spoken once again, saying a name that she had entirely forgotten.

_"Get the hell away from Misaka Imouto. Can you not hear me Suzushina Yuriko!?"_

Suzushina Yuriko.

A name that she had not heard in so long.

Yuriko had been stunned when she heard it but not taken out entirely as she had progressed with fighting the boy, who she now knew to be called Kamijou Touma, and eventually lost. She had been stripped of her title as the strongest and the Level 6 Shift had been suspended as a result.

It had only been cancelled in its entirety when she had saved Last Order from the hands of Amai Ao.

That one event was perhaps one of the major turning points in her life. She had met someone that had stated that she did not hate Yuriko for her actions, when the girl herself had entered a spiral of self-loathing and hate for the actions that she had committed against the Sisters. Last Order stated that she wanted to stay with Yuriko despite everything that had happened and beyond anything else, Yuriko wanted to ensure that she protected the one person that she felt existed solely to give her some light.

It was selfish of her to think of Last Order as nothing more than that but she saw Last Order as the embodiment of forgiveness to such an extent that she could not allow anything else to stain her pure colours. She wanted nothing more than to protect the girl that had accepted Yuriko for who she was despite knowing what had happened during the Level 6 Shift.

The aftermath of that incident had hammered Yuriko with nothing more than people that she knew were slightly condemning her for her actions, a paranoia that she knew was not within her mind. Seeing the Sisters themselves only reminded her of those actions and beyond anything, she never wanted to see another one of them stained with the colours of blood.

And that desire was more than just words.

She had proved that when Misaka #10046 had been captured by DA and when she had defeated Musujime Awaki.

Yuriko had dealt with that issue but as if the universe itself had only made events that existed for the sole purpose of ensuring that Yuriko never forgot that she was the #1 Level 5, the esper with the greatest destructive power, it had made another event pop up that had turned her entire life upside down.

The beginning of her descent into the Dark Side.

September 30th and the events that stemmed from that in itself; the Skill-Out Uprising, the Battle Royale, DRAGON, Aiwass; all of those had continued to stain Yuriko in colours that she did not know she wanted to be stained with.

Kihara Amata, Kakine Teitoku, Hamazura Shiage and Sugitani.

Yuriko had met people stained in the same colours as her yet she had fought for the desire to protect the one person that she felt as though she could not let those colours reach.

Yet they had managed to grip Last Order in its poisonous hold, taking Yuriko and her to Russia in order to find a way to save Last Order from the illness that had gripped her. And yet once again, the universe felt as though it needed to remind Yuriko of the pain and suffering she caused, only manipulating events to ensure that she never felt happiness, only pain and suffering.

And that happened through her battle with Misaka Worst.

Yuriko remembered her screams, both that of Worst's and her own as she was forced to battle the girl for the sake of protecting Last Order. She remembered the anger, the raw hatred at herself and the world for putting her in the position that it had. It was as if the actions that she had taken, putting herself in situations that she wanted no part of and being a villain were nothing more than mute.

It was as if the universe was telling her that she only had one role; to suffer and struggle despite her being the #1. As if strength meant nothing and the only thing that mattered was that she suffered and ironically enough could do nothing about it despite her own strength. In fact, her own strength was the thing pushing her closer to the edge as she was forced to battle Misaka Worst.

Suzushina Yuriko knew exactly what had happened to her in Russia during World War 3.

She had broken.

And yet, once again, she had been saved.

By an unlikely hero, someone that Yuriko had felt as though was the embodiment of good. If anything, he was a polar opposite to Yuriko in all fashions; in Level, hair colour, eye colour, power type and even gender. He was someone that was directly opposite Yuriko and despite her not wanting to admit it, she recognised that his own heroic existence was like a torch lighting the way for those that were lost while her own villainous existence was the darkness that that light created in turn.

He should have hated her for what she did to the Sisters.

Yet he had saved her. He had told her that it was up to her what she did with her life, that the idea of heroes and villains meant nothing and that when it came down to it, Yuriko was only presented with two options when it came to people hurting in front of her.

Save them.

Or to not.

What title was used when she did so did not matter. As long as she moved to save people, then whatever colours she was dyed in did not matter. The only thing that mattered was her own desire to save and the wish beyond anything to protect Last Order.

The boy had once again faced her and had once again won.

And with the aftermath of WWIII with the Star of Bethlehem falling, she had returned to her home in Academy City (although with another companion in the form of Worst), only to dive once more into the deep end with the only difference being the name of the villain that she had to face and the people that she had to protect.

The villains had come in many forms: The Freshmen, GREMLIN, Kakine Teitoku once more and surprisingly Othinus alongside Kamijou Touma.

And those that she had to save came in many forms as well: Fremea Seivelun, Hawaii, Last Order and the memory of the Sisters and surprisingly, Kamijou Touma as well despite him being her enemy at the time.

The storm had blown over and despite everything that she had been through Yuriko knew more than anything that she had to take this time to relax for as long as it lasted for she did not know when the world would suddenly throw her into the deep end and consume her once again with its dark colours.

Not only that but it seemed as though the world had gotten darker, being made up of not just Science yet also Magic as well.

The date was currently December 4th.

And for the most part, Suzushina Yuriko felt as though even despite everything that she had faced, this was the scariest day of her life.

The reason for such terrified her more than she could say so she had resorted to doing something childish, falling asleep on the couch in order to ensure that when Yomikawa came to wake her up she would feel guilty for doing so because of her (self-proclaimed) cute face and thus allow her the chance to avoid the thing that terrified her so.

Yet….yet….yet! She had had THAT dream.

Yuriko sat on the end of the couch, covering her head with her hands as she ran her hands through her white hair. Upon running her hands through it, her hand touched something that was attached in her hair, a small flower hairpin that was in her hair on the left side. Her fingers lingered on it for a while, her face going red as she recalled when exactly she had changed from her 'standard' hairpin to the flower in order to give her a more 'feminine appearance'.

It had been in Hawaii of all places.

And it had been something that _he _had gotten for her because of the fact that he merely 'thought it might suit her'.

Yuriko had gotten mixed messages from the boy's statement itself. He had said that it 'suited' her so that meant that he cared right? However, the fact that he had bought it cheap (something that was evident as he had accidentally left the price sticker on it) meant that there were no special feelings inside the gift. Yet he had taken the action and wasted money despite it being cheap. So that meant that the gift had special meaning right? But he had bought it cheap. But! Even though he had bought it cheap, he had given it to her personally! In Hawaii! That had to mean something right?!

Yuriko remembered the jealous face that Misaka Mikoto had made upon seeing the boy give her the hairpin and the suggestive face made by Worst (something that she wanted to forget) which made her somewhat proud of the fact that _he _had given it to her but she had trouble deciding whether there was something special in the gift or not.

And then….then there had been what she had said in Denmark.

Yuriko was sure that the dream she had had was in response to what she had said, some part of her mind wishing for a reality that was probably never going to happen but even so, she recalled the exact words that probably led to this embarrassed state.

It had been in the heat of the moment and Yuriko was unsure of what possessed her to say them but even so, she remembered those words that she had said to him on that snowy plain.

_"I'm only gonna bother looking after the people in my cell phone's memory."_

And on November 5th, on the day when _he _had come back to Academy City, who exactly had she exchanged phone numbers with?!

Yuriko's face burned as she recalled what she had said as well as the fact that she had _his _phone number within her contacts at the same time. She turned around and starting beating her head against the end of the couch, the cords from her electrode moving rapidly along with her head.

(No! Wh-what I said had nothing like that behind it! What I said to him was nothing more than spur of the moment. Spur of the moment! He probably didn't read into it and neither should I! Neither should I!)

Yuriko panted as she felt as though her forehead was swelling up as she leaned back into the couch, trying to hide her blushing face but for the most part was unable to as it burned probably hotter than the sun. Her face gained an annoyed expression that would have made most delinquents wet their pants but for the most part she paid no mind to whatever face she was making as she instead asked herself a single question.

"Since when did it turn out like this?"

Suzushina Yuriko didn't know when it had happened, especially given that she and _him _had started out as enemies but she could not deny the feelings that were sleeping deep inside her even though she had no experience in this field.

Suzushina Yuriko, for lack of a better word, had fallen in love.

And the person that she had fallen in love with was the oblivious Kamijou Touma, her eternal Hero that had saved her.

He probably didn't even realise that he had saved her, something that frustrated her more than she could say. After all, from his perspective the only thing that he had done was stop the Level 6 Shift and encourage her into saving Last Order when they had fought in Russia.

But that in itself had allowed Yuriko to stand on the peaceful path that she was on right now and allowed her to save the one person that had also saved her and prevented her from being dyed in the colours of the Darkness. He had shown her that titles such as 'heroes' and 'villains' did not matter and that it was only up to her to make the choices that she needed to.

That she was the master of her own life and that she walked it of her own accord.

And not only that, he said that he was proud of the path that she now walked. He had said that he was happy that she was happy and that she deserved this happiness given how much she had worked for forgiveness.

He was _proud _of her. He said that he was happy that she was happy and she deserved such even despite the path of blood and death that she had left behind.

Mikoto definitely didn't feel that at all but Yuriko understood the sentiment. She didn't want complete forgiveness; that would allow her to grow complacent and forget the path that she had walked as a monster previously. She didn't want to forget and only wanted to ensure that Last Order and the Sisters at the very least could have the chance to live their lives in happiness.

Whether Yuriko achieved that was another matter.

But for _him _he had said that she deserved happiness for working to save others. That he was proud of her for taking the role of the hero into her own hands despite her only having done so because of his actions.

Suzushina Yuriko was happy. She was someone that had worked hard, had realised her mistake and met so many people that she saw as a family that she wanted to protect more than anything else. She had created something that she had wanted for so long when she had thought that it was so out of her reach despite her status as the #1.

And the person that had pushed her onto that path? The person that had made her realise that mistake and then told her in Russia that it was up to her what she wanted to do from now?

It was none other than the Hero. It was none other than Kamijou Touma.

Yuriko knew that she had respected the boy and idolised him for his actions even though she understood that she could never reach his level. She had seen him as perhaps a best friend or big brother in her 'family', someone that would stand by her despite what she went through, support her and give her the push that she needed to go back to the path that she knew to be the one that she wanted more than anything.

_If she were a boy_, that eternal respect and appreciation of the boy, his existence and what he had done for Accelerator would have stopped there. _If she were a boy_, she would have viewed him as the heroic nature of humans, something that had to be protected if not for the sole reason that it allowed her to see that there was a latent goodness in people. To see that just in that one boy that there was a way for everyone to be saved despite the pain.

However, Suzushina Yuriko was not a boy.

And because she was a girl, her feelings had grown for the boy. Her eternal respect and appreciation, her gratitude had turned into something else. The boy's acceptance of her as a person and as someone that he could support and trust filled her with more joy than she could say despite the darkness. His wish to make sure that she could continue to be happy made her hope for a better future.

And that was something that no one had given her in a long time.

He had reached out his hands without knowing it, dragged Yuriko into the sunlight and showed her everything that was wrong with her. And when she produced results, he claimed no credit, attributing the change entirely to her despite his role in her change.

It was selflessness to a ridiculous degree and given the darkness, it was hard to know where she stood when she thought about his nature. She had met twisted people like Kakine and Kihara Amata so she knew that the world was not entirely kind.

But when she saw _him_, she realised that the small kindness the world held was perhaps something worth fighting for. It was in Last Order too so she knew what it was worth.

However, her lack of experience put her entirely at a loss. What was she to do about these feelings? Not to mention that there was plenty of competition for the boy's affections.

There was that nun; Yuriko could tell that she had feelings for _him _from the way that she was looking at him when they had gone to his house with Leivinia Birdway (she had almost died from embarrassment after being invited to his place but she had kept it well hidden).

There was that Third Rate. How had he not noticed? It was beyond Yuriko but Mikoto's feelings were obvious to her, something that was an untouched landmine between the #1 and the #3.

There were those girls that had clung to him as he had walked home drunk. A few of them Yuriko knew but seeing the pure numbers made her feel as though she was nothing more than a side character.

There was perhaps Birdway as well although it was hard to tell. She kept her feelings hidden from Yuriko and it was hard to get a read from her, but even Yuriko could tell that she saw _him _as something more than just the 'Imagine Breaker'.

There were the Sisters themselves. Somehow their feelings and memories of what caused those feelings to form had spread through the Misaka Network. The result? In essence, the boy had clones whose numbers were equivalent to a small town population fall for him.

And then, there was the kicker.

Othinus.

S-Seeing her and her skimpy outfit clinging to _him _during their elopement in Denmark had almost made her seriously rid her to shreds before she recalled her own goals. There was something between the two of them, it was obvious but somehow it seemed as though Yuriko had a hard time calling it 'love'. It was like there was a silent Understanding between the two but depending on how you looked at it, you could call it love if you looked at certain points and respect if you looked at others.

Regardless, Suzushina Yuriko felt as though she was nothing more than a drop in the ocean when compared to the other girls.

What exactly did she have that they did not?

Ultimate strength? The power Accelerator? Calculation speeds that surpassed most geniuses?

How exactly were those 'charm points'?

Not to mention her stained hands.

No matter how Yuriko looked at it, even though she had those feelings deep within her, her lack of positive points and the fact that she had been stained in blood only hammered into her mind that she didn't deserve love. Someone as good as Kamijou Touma didn't deserve someone as dark as Suzushina Yuriko.

She knew that and repeated it in her mind again and again, yet every time that he looked her way, every time that he smiled at her, there was a warmth within her chest that she didn't want to fade. It was a warmth that she had been searching for so long for that her heart had frozen yet it thawed in the face of that smile.

She wanted Kamijou Touma to love her more than anything. But she also knew that it could never be.

….It was like a Shakespearian romance except all of the tragedy and conflict was happening within her own head. The boy didn't have a clue although then again, his life was the shits so she didn't think that he had noticed because of that to be honest.

Still, Yuriko shook her head, slapping herself in the face.

Th-This was no time to be thinking about that! Personally, she felt as though this was the worst day of her life and there was no time to be awake. She needed to go to sleep so that Yomikawa would be guilty in waking her up when she came to take her away for perhaps the scariest event that had happened the #1 Level 5 esper!

Yuriko lay down on the couch once more and turned to her clothes, her face twisting into an expression that would have made people faint on the spot.

Sh-She wasn't normally intimidating. Get her in a good mood and she was someone that was pleasant company (at least according to _him_) however bad habits that she had picked up in the Dark Side such as needlessly swearing, her own hatred for herself and what she had done meant that she constantly had an intimidating expression on her face and her androgynous appearance meant that it was easy for others to mistake her for a boy.

Which only added to the pissed expression on her face.

Regardless though, she could only feel seething hate for what she was wearing.

It was a school uniform. With a sailor uniform garb and a long skirt, it seemed to be perfectly made for her and the school logo was on the collar, something that she regarded with disdain. Yomikawa had insisted that she wear it given that today was the 'day where everything begins' as she had put it.

Suzushina Yuriko though could only put it as the 'day where everything ends'.

The reason that Yuriko was wearing a school uniform was simple.

It was her first day in school.

Despite having been put off for ages and her own haunting recollections of her own 'education' experience meant that she was incredibly reluctant to even go to school. Even though on paper, she was said to attend Nagatenjouki Academy, she had never gone. Yet here she was, in an unfamiliar uniform that clearly did not belong to that academy being made to attend school, something that she had avoided like the plague.

There were plenty of good reasons for such. Disregarding her bad experience with it in the past, the fact that she was the #1, basically an honour student meant that she was literally 'too good for school'. It might have been arrogant to say that but it was the truth.

However, it seemed as though Yomikawa Aiho was having none of it, instead conscripting the girl to attend school even though it was December. Not only that but the uniform that she was wearing was not that of Nagatenjouki Academy, something that stumped her entirely as she tried to figure out which school exactly she was going to.

Whatever the case though, it seemed as though what with the chaos of GREMLIN and WWIII having ended, Yomikawa and Yoshikawa Kikyou felt as though having Yuriko attend school to establish a sense of peace and calm was good for her.

But in her opinion, if this was anything like the peace and calm that currently surrounded her now, she didn't want any more of it.

"Come on! Come on says Misaka as Misaka shakes you in an attempt to get you to wake up."

Yuriko suddenly felt hands on her side, shaking her back and forth with vigour as she felt herself being rocked from side to side without any consideration for her personal space. She was facing the back of the couch meaning that when she opened her eyes no one saw but her red eyes held a contempt for the person shaking her back and forth without any consideration.

"Huh? Is she asleep already? Yoshikawa, did she do this a lot when you worked with her?"

"Yuri-chan? Only when she was sulking or bored. She definitely tended to resort to these sorts of childish things during the Experiment when she had another trial and she didn't want to do it. She would pretend to be asleep while thinking she was cute that we wouldn't want to wake her up. Too bad whenever she woke up she looked like a dog's breakfast meaning that we were more scared of what she looked like waking up rather than what she would do to us with her power when we did so."

(Damn it Yoshikawa! I can hear every damn word you're saying! A-And stop calling me Yuri-chan! I hate that, it's so demeaning ever since I told you I remember my name! AND WHO LOOKS LIKE A DOG'S BREAKFAST!?)

Yuriko's face contorted with rage that added to her intimidation and only resulted in the point Yoshikawa made being made known. Indeed, the face that she was making was something that should never have been on the face of a fair maiden, especially one that usually looked intimidating in the first place, not only because of her face but also because of her power and its ranking.

"Say, why don't we hover her out the broken window for some wind on her face?! suggests Misaka as Misaka tries using all her strength to push the couch even though the weight on it turns out to be surprisingly heavy!"

(You damn brat! Whose heavy!? I-I've been watching my weight! I-I have! A-And my lack of breasts means there is no excess fat there so shut the hell up!)

"I don't think that's such a good idea Last Order. With the Arrowhead Comet smashing against something yesterday breaking all of the windows in the City, she's probably already adjusted to the cold in this room. I certainly have."

"As a gym teacher, I think that there's something to your resistance to the cold there Yomikawa. Hmm….that might be an interesting bit of research. I better write that down."

The voices of Yomikawa Aiho and Yoshikawa Kikyou filled the air as Yuriko attempted to be as quiet as possible in order to hide the fact that she was faking sleeping. If she had to say though the fact that the others were watching her sleep was something that was awfully nerve wracking not to mention the constant scraping sounds and movement of the couch on the floor made her wonder if Last Order was seriously considering hanging her out of the window to wake her up.

There were footsteps and Yuriko kept silent, her mind only thinking of one thing. While Last Order was a pain, her intentions were good. As for the adults, they never went over the line and they knew their boundaries when it came to disturbing the sleeping Level 5.

Which meant that the one she had to watch out for was her Silent Tormenter.

Suddenly Yuriko felt the cold breeze against her legs as her skirt was lifted up and the sound of a voice came through, sounding awfully cheeky and full of itself.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? Misaka personally thinks that you're brave for going to school commando."

"Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!"

Yuriko screamed, turning around rapidly and grabbing the Third Season clone by the collar of her aodai and shaking her back and forth with pure anger in her red eyes and red on her cheeks as she splurted out the words within her heart.

"Who's commando?! Tell me who the FUCK is going commando!? Why the hell do you have an obsession with everything south of my hips and north of my solar plexus?! Do you think it's funny to mock something that I don't have?!"

"In a word? Misaka would say that would be 'yes'." Worst made that horrible remark with a sneer on her face as it seemed as though she was enjoying the scene in front of her, mainly because she knew that merely putting on puppy dog eyes was enough to make Yuriko stop any potential attack that she was going to unleash on her. Yuriko knew it too however it didn't make her any happier as she turned to face Yomikawa.

"Hey! You can't expect me to go to school like this!"

Yomikawa's eyes went wide.

"Y-You're actually commando?"

"N-No! Why the fuck do you think I'm commando!? I meant after this sexual harassment! This sexual harassment has played with my heart to the extent that I seriously think I can't go to school after all! And I'm not commando Yoshikawa so stop making that shitty face that screams that you think I have a hidden bold side!" Yuriko screamed as she held Worst in the air as the girl clearly was having fun with the concept that she had managed to get into the adult's mind.

But it seemed as though that concept was something that was not only shared by the adults but also the childlike figure that had suddenly lifted up Yuriko's skirt from behind her, the cloth billowing in the air blowing through the broken window. Yuriko felt rage and embarrassment coarse through her veins. The veins on her temples bulged as she slowly turned her head around, her red eyes seeming to shine with malicious intent and her face turned in rage and embarrassment.

"I-It's OK reports Misaka as Misaka takes the initiative to check on the status of Yuriko's panties! With a floral pattern matching the hairpin she has, everything is OK Captain states Misaka as Misaka exposes the lie that is going commando!"

"How can you have the sense to do that when the windows are broken and everyone in the building opposite can see me you shitty braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttttttttttttttt!?"

Yuriko instantly dropped Worst from her hands and reached for Last Order as the girl screamed, rounding the couch. Yuriko grabbed her cane from the side and proceeded to jump onto the sofa, breathing out a miasma that leaked through the entire room. If it was any denser, it would have set off the smoke detector as Yomikawa merely sighed.

"Come on now. Stop this. It's not that big a deal. We're all girls here."

"Fuck you! I don't see you stripping to prove your point! Come back here you shitty brat so I can strangle you!" Yuriko yelled at both of her opponents as Yomikawa twitched, the disrespect that was being shown to her putting her on edge slightly as she frowned, crossing her arms and pressing up her chest.

"In all seriousness, I have a student of mine to escort you to the school. So you better be prepared for them." Yomikawa said in seriousness as Yuriko stopped halfway through chasing Last Order who hid behind Worst, trembling slightly although the hint of amusement hidden in her eyes made it clear that she was somewhat glad that she had managed to get a glimpse of the floral pattern of the #1.

It might not have looked like it with all the swearing that Yuriko was doing and the outrage she was feeling but the fact that both Worst and Last Order had managed to lift up her skirt spoke volumes. Although she might have said that it was a pain, in this space and this space alone where Yuriko felt as though she belonged, her guard was totally let down.

She felt open and did not bother to hide anything from those that occupied this same room and felt as though the constraints that other places put on her were completely removed. After all, even though she complained about it, this space was where her 'family' resided.

And the trust that she showed them was only reflected in how she let down her guard to the extent that this sort of thing was commonplace within the Yomikawa household. From an external viewpoint, it might have seemed as though the girls had a rather invasive relationship but for those that were looking at the scene now, the only thing that they really saw was a tight knit relationship between the girls that was forged strongly.

To the extent that the bonds that connected them were something that they all treasured even if they complained about the nature of them in the first place.

"S-Someone's coming here?" asked Yuriko, rather nervous. Although she was still pissed at Last Order and Worst for having lifted up her skirt, the fact of the matter was that she was prioritising the fact that she was heading to school in her mind.

A normal life, the normal life of an average school student lay in front of her and it immediately put her on guard. The alien concept was unnatural to her and if she was honest, she would say that in truth, the thought of her going to school scared her.

She was the #1 after all.

That alone came with the stigma of the 'strong' where the weak feared them. It was unlikely that she would come across the other Level 5s as well; the uniform she was wearing was not that of Tokiwadai's, the Second Rate was hovering around the City in his Beetle Form, the Fourth Rate hardly went to school and she knew jack about both the Sixth Rate and the Seventh Rate.

Which meant that in this school, this supposedly 'safe' environment, Yuriko would be what she always had been.

Alone.

People would stay away from her because of her strength and ostracise her because of it. She would end up pulling faces in contempt and frustration which would intimidate others as a result which would in turn mean that there were more reasons to stay away from her than to stick with her and things would end up as they always did.

Suzushina Yuriko would once more be alone.

And the thought of that scared her. She didn't want that at all after everything that she had gained with her hands.

It was why she wanted to stay here, where she was accepted and where she knew that no one would turn their back on her. In truth, if she was asked what she thought of school she would reply with "It's not needed" mainly because of that frame of mind that she held about social rejection.

Of course, it was not the only thought that she held; after all she was nothing more than a girl even with the title of the #1.

But even then, the average esper of Academy City never saw through that. They only saw 'Accelerator', the esper that reigned at the top with an iron grip, fearsome expression and unbeatable power.

She didn't want to be alone anymore.

So, she didn't want to go to school.

Not going to school would mean that she would never be hurt through loneliness again.

The thought that someone would be accompanying her to school then scared her as well. What type of person would this be? What type of first impression would she leave on them and what type of rumours would spread as a result? If she intimidated this person coming over, then they would tell their school friends of this bad first impression which would spread and lead to Yuriko being ostracised once again.

She didn't want that.

She didn't want that at all.

Yomikawa nodded at the response Yuriko made.

"Yeah. And judging from the time, and the fact that I said I would deduct credits if he came late, he should be – "

The doorbell rang.

And Suzushina Yuriko's heart crushed under the weight of her nervousness., anxiety and worry. Her expression changed and much to her dislike it did so in a defensive way, turning into a scowl that should anyone see it surely think of as intimidating. But this scowl was a defensive technique, something that she put up when she felt as though she was in danger.

It was perfectly natural but when he tried to consciously change it, she could feel it turning into a sneer.

Yuriko with her heart racing (which was ridiculous given that she was the #1 Level 5 esper) turned and looked to the school bag that was lying on the kitchen countertop. All she had to do was take it and head to school. She had done harder things in her life; survive a bullet to the head, taken out a Six Wings, defeated the #2, Awakened, protected Last Order, had stood on the final stage of World War 3 yet all of that seemed like nothing to what she was facing now.

She gulped and opened her mouth to say something, seeing Yomikawa's small smile at the Level 5's nervousness at the concept of entering unknown territory that could potentially hurt her.

And she spoke, not as a teacher wanting to help a student but rather as a member of Yuriko's family.

"It'll be fine. Trust me. It's the great unknown after all."

"How do you know it's great if it's the 'unknown'? It could be a pit of lava." Retorted Yuriko with a sharp tone as Yomikawa grinned, grabbing the bag and throwing it to Yuriko. She reacted and caught it as Yomikawa turned and headed for the door.

"Keep your wits about you and you'll be fine. Welcome to the first day of school."

"A-Ah! Wait! You two idiots, hide otherwise the person that came here is going to see you and your familiar faces and – "

Yuriko, in an attempt to protect both Last Order and Worst from being seen together by a total stranger turned to them however Yomikawa had already opened the door to greet the fellow student of Yuriko's school. Her face went pale (if it was possible to get even more white) as she turned and looked at the person coming through the door. She could tell her face was intimidating, she had put on another defensive expression to protect both of her family members however her mouth dropped as soon as she saw the person that walked through the door.

The person that walked through the door seemed even more surprised as they opened their mouth to say something however spotted something in the corner of their eye, turning towards it and going even more wide eyed.

"Wh-Why do you have 5 rice cookers Yomikawa-sensei!? D-Don't tell all your nutrition comes from r – bfhbhfbhfhb!?"

"What the fuck are you doing here!? And why are you placing rice cookers above me in terms of overall importance?!"

Yuriko reacted by throwing her bag through the air as it collided with its target. He fell to the ground, rubbing his head where the bag had impacted before picking it up and leaning over the counter with it in hand.

"O-Ow. My ordeal with Kamisato yesterday still hasn't completely healed. B-But no. I was just surprised. I mean it's not every day you see 5 rice cookers!"

"So you've gotten used to me is that it?" Yuriko said in a scathing tone to which the boy blinked, tilted his head and seemed to not understand what the whole problem was in the first place.

"Yeah, pretty much. I mean, when seeing friends, it's not like there's a big fanfare right? Unless you're into that sort of thing but then after a while, it's a drain on the wallet. A-and that's not something that I can afford!"

The word 'friend' instantly made Yuriko blush furiously despite herself and she noticed that in the corner of her eye, Worst had resorted to an old habit whenever she saw the person in front of her, moving behind the sofa in order to avoid being seen. Last Order though was more energetic as she instantly bounded through the air and tackled the student in the gut.

"I-It's the Saviour! yells Misaka as Misaka presses up against you, wondering what this blonde-haired figure in your pocket is."

The boy grunted as he was tackled in the chest by Last Order as Yuriko instead turned to face her guardian, demanding answers from the woman that seemed more surprised that the two of them knew each other despite it all. The meeting had entirely been unplanned but even so, Yomikawa turned and looked at Yuriko with that surprised expression.

"You know him? How in the world do you know Kamijou Touma-kun?"

Yuriko glanced back at the boy as soon the teacher said that, noting that the boy had had enough of Last Order clinging onto him and wanted her off as soon as possible as he struggled to do so. While Yuriko knew the boy, she felt as though it was discretion that prevented her from stating how the two of them knew each other. While she would lie, the fact that she hardly went out meant that anything she might come up with would be seen through.

"Forget that. How the hell do you know the H-"

Yuriko caught herself before she spoke.

What she was about to call Kamijou was nothing more than something that she alone referred to the boy as. _If she had been a boy_, she was sure that addressing Kamijou as the 'Hero' in front of others was probably a mark of respect but as a girl, she felt nothing but a heated embarrassment whenever she did so and people looked at her strange.

Of the people that knew of what she called the boy, only Last Order, Worst and those that she had gone to Hawaii with knew of her tendency to refer to Kamijou with that word.

Her mind searched for an appropriate term to call him with, unable to think of anything straight up and instead resorted to a defensive position, choosing the word that Yuriko knew was extremely unfair to call him yet she still spat it out regardless.

"How the hell do you know this bastard?!"

Kamijou though seemed unfazed as Yomikawa tilted her head and pointed at the boy that had managed to get Last Order off however the girl seemed to be having too much fun, grabbing his front and trying to swing around the back. It irritated Yuriko that the girl was being so friendly and the boy so flippant; this was a serious case of her heart being placed on the line.

The boy laughed, a joyous sound that lifted the spirits of Yuriko as she forced down the happiness that she was feeling at the sound.

_She didn't deserve him_ but even so she was lost in the sound of the boy's laugh, no matter how desperate it might seem now that Last Order was basically pinching him in order to maintain her grip on him.

Yomikawa though chose to answer her question.

"He's a student at my school. And the one that _you will be attending_. I asked around for people that might have a good first impression of you and apparently, this guy was 'popular with the girls' so I figured that he would be the one to get on your good side and fast. I didn't expect you two to have met beforehand though."

"Yomika-"

"H-Hang on there! Who's 'popular with the girls'?! Th-That's not coming from my class is it!? Let me tell you right now that everything they say is lies! All lies!"

Kamijou's comment, along with his shocked face were ignored as the adult and the female student conversed. The boy though seriously wondered what kind of horrendous rumours surrounded him at school and he wondered what his school life had descended into. His imagination went wild and tears started running down his face as he figured that it probably wasn't anything good given his misfortune.

"Well, how did you two meet?"

Yuriko averted her gaze, her face flushing a bit as she considered what to tell the older woman. While she could indeed lie, it would be seen through; she let down her guard to that extent within this peaceful space that she called her home. Not only that but Yomikawa knew her well enough to know when she was lying. Although Yuriko was generally good at hiding things, lying was another thing altogether.

So instead of beating around the bush, she merely got straight to the point.

"He helped me out once. That's it."

(It's not entirely true, but it's not entirely false either. Damn Yomikawa and her questioning.)

Yomikawa rose an eyebrow, turning to Kamijou that seemed rather flustered at being put on the spot and clearly being asked as well. A quick glance at Yuriko and her ice creating stare back told Kamijou that he needed to go with what she said as he sweatdropped with Last Order still clinging to him and scratched his cheek.

"Y-Yeah. Something like that. Suzushina helped out me out in turn a greater deal though so I sort of owe her." Kamijou said sheepishly, which got a raised eyebrow from Yoshikawa as she turned to the girl, seeing that she had narrowed her eyes.

Here was the boy doing it again. Despite everything that he had done for her, he placed what she had done for him on a greater level, offering himself up to her as a result. It was modesty at its finest and somehow part of his charm, something that annoyed Yuriko to no end as she fiddled with her hair.

This meant that she ended up touching the hairpin that she had gotten from him. Strangely, whenever she got nervous the new habit that she had picked up by fiddling with her hair near the hairpin created a sense of calm within her and it was the only thing that she could do to not think too much into why she felt calm when she touched the item that he had given her.

"No honorifics? You two must be close," Remarked Yomikawa with a cheeky grin. "Say Yuri-chan (this got a raised eyebrow from Kamijou) is this the guy? You know the one that yo-"

"Say another word and they'll find your body in your precious rice cookers." Yuriko said bluntly. Yomikawa grinned even further while Kamijou merely tiled his head.

Unfortunately, while Kamijou was oblivious to her feelings, the same was not said of Worst and Last Order. While the latter had the sense to not say anything about it mainly because there was a constant jealously running rampant through the Network, whenever Worst got the chance she would constantly tease her over her childish crush over the boy.

It went beyond irritating and into the realm of making Yuriko suicidal at the things that Worst had suggested and 'shown' her on the Internet of things to do when she got the chance. Even now she could feel the cheeky grin of Worst coming from behind the couch which she refused to turn and meet.

"But forget all of that!"

"I'm unlikely to."

Yoshikawa made an unnecessary comment as Yuriko shot her a glare as she turned back to Yomikawa.

"A-Are you telling me that I have to attend the H-….this guy's school? I'm the #1! You have no idea the things that I can compute and the like! I have no wish to enter into a school environment where instantly I'm better than everyone else."

"Ha. Well while that's true, you can actually thank this guy for that."

"What!?"

"So this is YOUR fault?!"

Kamijou seemed to have been slapped in the face with a wet fish while Yuriko stormed up to him, grabbing him by the collar and shaking him around with Last Order still attached to his back. So in the end the one that had made Yuriko experience this nervousness was this Hero?! And not to mention the fact that he seemed surprised by it so he hadn't done so in order for the two of them to get closer?!

"H-H-H-Hang o-o-o-o-on th-th-th-there! Wh-wh-what-!"

Kamijou tried to speak but was unable to as Yomikawa merely spoke without stopping what was borderline abuse.

"You were overheard by Komoe-sensei and I. You said you wanted some way to increase the average of your class because most of you are idiots. Not to mention the school. You didn't realise it but you made a comment about how you wondered if the teachers were paid according to the performance of the school and the idea floated around a bit until it reached the principal. He figured it was a good idea but our class and school average is pretty bad. S-So, what else could we do but bring in the #1 in order to give her a proper learning experience!?"

"You say that but it's pretty fucking clear that the only reason I'm being sent to that school is to make sure that I can increase the class and school average because of my intelligence so that you teachers can get paid more! How selfish can you get?!"

"Wh-what? Why would you think that?"

"And did you just admit that this H-…..guy's class is full of idiots?!"

"Incidentally, he's got the worst scores."

"I-I-I-I-I-I'm cr-cr-cr-crying ov-ov-ov-ov-over h-h-h-h-h-here!" Kamijou said that as a salty liquid (most likely his tears) sprayed through the air all over the counter as Yuriko slowly let him down, breathing heavily before turning to Yomikawa.

"I refuse. I don't want to go to school."

"Come on. Not everyone feels that way."

"A-Actually I do." Kamijou provided some unhelpful input by raising both a hand and a comment as Yomikawa turned to face him with a cold smile on her face.

"Would you like to repeat?"

That comment alone seemed to stab into the boy as he fell to his knees and entered a state of depression, all the while Last Order trying to grab the figure within the boy's pocket with greater interest as the figure seemed to be fighting back as it wanted to be kept inside the boy's pocket.

"Yomikawa. I think maybe if we put Yuri-chan in the same class as her friend over here, then maybe that opinion will change?" Yoshikawa spoke for the first time since Kamijou entered the room, Yuriko turning to her with a faint blush on her cheeks as she glared at the woman who seemed to ignore the glance that she was sending her way. "After all, if we're going for a school environment setting, maybe putting her with others will be a better way to get her to open up?"

"Huh? Well I mean I was hoping to put her in my class so my class average can increase and my pay can…..Uh, I mean I was hoping to put her in my class so she can meet more elites like her."

"You're slipping there and your intentions are being made known."

Yomikawa averted her gaze, turning to look fully at Yuriko although she seemed to be awfully nervous and somewhat downtrodden as she spoke. Yomikawa's tone was shaky and it was clear that she was averse to the idea she was proposing however she made it anyway.

"I-I think it's a great idea! Yuri-chan, you can spend the day with him. I'm sure that Kamijou-chan here can show you the ropes around our school. …Even though it was destroyed. That was the intention anyway but being in his class is sure to allow you to meet some great people!"

"WHAT?!"

Yuriko blurted out that word at the suggestion as it seemed to horrify her although on another level altogether, only added to the nervousness that was coursing through her body. The mere _idea _of having to see the Hero for the school days and be in the same class as him put her head into a state of warmth that she was not sure would fade; the proximity and closeness that the two of them would share making ideas form that were not healthy for a girl that age.

And yet she knew. She knew that she wanted to be with Kamijou Touma more than anything even though she also knew that she didn't deserve him. They were polar opposites; his hands were unstained and hers were stained so much that she could never wash off the blood.

It was an eternal contradiction and it hurt her that she had to cross off any chance of romance with the boy because she felt what she did about herself.

If she was in the same class each and every day as him, then she was sure that that ache would only increase. Her heart would leap in joy every time that she saw him and she would be happy when he was happy. She would feel at peace and that peace had been something that had seemed so out of reach so long ago.

Yet she knew it would never be. She knew that nothing would come of it. Suzushina Yuriko knew that she didn't deserve to be loved by Kamijou Touma in any way, shape or form because of what she had done in the past.

Being faced with the person she loved, only to have her own idea that she did not deserve him because of what she had done thrust upon her every school day would be extremely painful. It wasn't him, it was entirely Yuriko's own state of mind and the pressure of seeing him, only for nothing to come of it made her heart ache.

Yuriko hated herself for having fallen for him. While the same sentiments surrounding the boy could also be applied to Last Order, Yuriko was working to fix everything that she could with the Sisters in order to achieve peace.

But could the same be said of Kamijou Touma? Was there anything there that she could fix in order to bring about the resolution and redemption she wanted?

She didn't know and for the most part, whenever she thought about it, it would only give her pain to consider. That much was the truth and being in the same class as him day in and day out would only pressure her from all sides, crushing her heart. She would be mocked by herself, presented with Kamijou who she liked only to have nothing come of it because of her own limiters.

She didn't want to be hurt in that way.

So Suzushina Yuriko did not want to go to school.

"We've already signed the paperwork so you may as well go. Not going is going to cause more trouble than if you do." remarked Yomikawa as she placed her hands on her hips while looking at Yuriko with a frown.

The girl merely averted her gaze and stared at the floor.

"Even so, I don't want to go. Nothing you can say can convince me otherwise."

Yuriko stood her ground, her expression cold and fierce as the two adults sighed. Last Order turned to face Yuriko as she hung onto the back of Kamijou and spoke.

"B-But! Misaka thinks that experiencing something that can allow you to connect with others would be a good sense of growth says Misaka as Misaka honestly conveys what she thinks to be good for you."

"I don't give a damn so shut up you shitty brat."

"Uhhh! M-Misaka was shot down despite the best intentions behind the statement cries Misaka as Misaka clings onto the Saviour in the hopes of making you reconsider!"

"Your verbal tic makes it obvious what you're planning so just stop right there!"

Yuriko yelled that out as Kamijou glanced nervously between the two girls, Last Order looking at Kamijou with an expectant look as if she wanted something from him. Turning to Yuriko he saw something similar however it was fiercer and probably wanting the opposite of what Last Order wanted. In fact, Last Order had tightened her grip so it was clear that she wasn't going to be getting off anytime soon unless she got what she wanted.

And it was also clear that if Yuriko did not get what she wanted, she would probably murder Kamijou then and there using her power to get out of going to school.

Kamijou felt a cold sweat pour over his body as he assessed his options but even though that was the case, the only thing that he felt was a nervousness that he had gotten adjusted to over time.

(Why is it that whenever I do something I end up with this life and death situation?! I-If I make Suzushina go to school, she'll kill me. I-If I don't, Last Order will probably either tighten her grip around my neck or stick to my back even when I go to school. Either option will lead to death, especially the latter! I can just imagine Aogami's reaction when I arrive at the school with her on my back! I don't want to make these types of choices anymore! Such misfortune!)

All eyes were suddenly on him as Kamijou gulped, averting his gaze however it was clear that the others were looking to him to solve the situation at hand. He gulped again, realising that there was no way out of this situation as he gave a sigh.

"W-Well personally I think that Suzushina should do as she likes."

"What!? cries Misaka as Misaka starts to dish out the punishment game!"

"H-Hah! See!? This cowardly H-….bastard doesn't have the guts to stand up against me!" Yuriko said that as she felt somewhat disappointed at the same time as Yomikawa stepped forward towards Kamijou, the boy taking a step back in response, looking away for fear of what would happen to him.

"Do you want to explain your decision there?" she asked.

"W-Well I'd like to do so with some air in my throat Last Order so please stop choking me with your arms tied around my neck! Oxygen is vital for my health! Vital!" Kamijou cried out in desperation as Last Order narrowed her eyes, releasing the grip that she had around his throat as he gasped.

Taking his time, he merely stretched out both hands and indicated everyone in the room, even Worst who flinched as she was indicated by him. He had no idea why she did that but saved the idea for another time.

"Look around you. I mean, you're asking her to open up yet she's managed to gain so much and make so many connections. When I first met her, to think that she would have Last Order and Worst by her side was unthinkable. Let alone two adults that were happy to be by her side. You talk about her wanting to 'open up' but she's doing so. And in her own time as well. I'm not one to say things about how difficult it is to connect with others; I have my own difficulties there as well. Everyone does. But for Suzushina, making fast progress isn't a victory. It's making progress at her own pace. She doesn't want to go to school. That's fine. She wants to rest in the knowledge that the peace here is safely around her. Suddenly throwing her into a new environment is only going to make her worry and personally, I don't want her to go. She's happy here. And for me, that's all I need to see. Isn't it the same for you?"

Kamijou asked his question without holding back as the others turned to each other. They all looked surprised, even Last Order hanging around his neck as Yuriko stared at the boy.

He was being considerate of her own feelings and was considering them above anything else. He was giving her the freedom to think as her own self, realising that if she wanted to do something, she would and if she didn't, she wouldn't. He was giving her independence, a role as a person and that was something that many people hadn't offered her in a while.

He was giving her the choice to make a choice. He was giving her freedom when she had been trapped within a painful cycle of people choosing things for her for so long.

He had given Yuriko her name. He had given Yuriko the courage to save Last Order and Worst. And now he was giving Yuriko her own status as a free person, not constrained by the Darkness, by adults or anything like that.

He was merely saying 'let Suzushina Yuriko be Suzushina Yuriko'. It was a simple statement, yet one that had been denied to her for so long.

And that in itself made her blush, resulting in her fiddling with her hair and hairpin as a result of her flustered state.

Yomikawa blinked and sighed. She turned to face Yuriko once more as she spoke.

"Do you really not want to go to school? It's your choice as the boy said. He's right after all. We've been saying 'do this' and 'do that' in what we think are your 'best interests' but what do you want to do?"

Yomikawa Aiho asked her question as Yuriko suddenly found all eyes on her. She opened her mouth to make the simplest option however she found herself unable to form the words she wanted.

"I….."

She turned and looked at the person that had given her the chance to make her own choice and was surprised to see that he had averted her gaze, instead looking at the rice cookers with obvious fascination. It might have seemed rude to Yuriko however the meaning behind the distracted boy was not lost on her, he was merely stating that this was her choice, one to be made without pressure and without external influence.

"I…."

This was her choice. Whatever she chose no one would blame her for and she only had to consult herself in the matter.

So, what did Suzushina Yuriko want?

She loved this place. She loved the people that had gathered here in this room, the family that she had built up. Yuriko had managed to create a connection with Last Order, Worst, Yomikawa and Yoshikawa all with her own hands and had defended it from those that wanted to take it from her. She was proud to call this her own and she was happy that she had managed to hold onto it.

Being greedy and wanting to add to this peace would lead to destruction, she was sure of it. Wanting more and more people in this family was going to bring it all crashing down, of that Yuriko was sure. She was content with what she had and if things were added to it, that was fine too.

Either way, she didn't want things to change. She didn't want things to be removed from this and she didn't want things to be changed. If things were added, there was no problem with that.

But in this decision, she did not want to be hurt. Yuriko did not deny what she felt for the boy that was in front of her, she knew it and knew it well. And she also knew that by spending every school day with him, his presence would cause her pain.

He was right in front of her but her own personal limiter and her hatred for herself would prevent her from seeking out that which she wanted despite how much she loved being in the boy's presence. Yuriko didn't want to experience that pain despite the sweet-smelling fruit that came with it.

In the end, what did she want?

What was her choice going to be?

"I…."

She assessed all options and made up her mind, choosing to turn to Kamijou of all people as she spoke. He saw the movement and turned to her as Yuriko laid her heart out on the table.

"I want to go. I've changed my mind. You changed it for me. No….I changed it myself. You're right. I love this place and the people within it. But…..at the same time I can't fear the world outside of here for my entire life. I can't just accept that this is all there is when everyone here knows that there is something else out there. If I do not, I'll become nothing more than an anchor weighing everyone down. I don't want that. I want to know the world; I want to see it. I want to feel pain, happiness, heartache, frustration, anger and sadness. I want to know that I have a part in this world. I want to be a part of it instead of just interacting with the small parts that I already have."

Yuriko knew that she would hurt when she chose this option.

But instead of it being a hurt that others gave for her, it would be a hurt that she had placed on herself. She had braved her fear and the hurt that came with her choice, choosing the option that would mean she could claim that whatever happened was because of her and her alone.

Suzushina Yuriko was her own person and making her own choices. She wanted to see things without the filter that others put over it and only through her eyes, eyes that belonged to a person that had chosen to enter into the fray of their own accord.

The great unknown.

Yuriko did not know what was there, but she had chosen to step into it herself. She had chosen to take that first step herself with that strength that lay within her.

"And Yomikawa. Stop fucking grinning because of a choice that I made."

Yuriko though turned and faced Yomikawa that merely put both of her hands up.

"No, I'm not grinning! Seriously! I-I'm just happy about my pa - I-I mean I'm happy for you! Yes, you!"

"You're still slipping there Aiho." Remarked Yoshikawa as she put a hand to her forehead. Last Order grinned, raising one of her arms around Kamijou's neck as he stepped in order to catch her if she fell.

"Hooray! yells Misaka as Misaka rides her victory horse! D-Does this mean that every day will become a high school romantic comedy that the other units have been seeing all around the world?! wonders Misaka as Misaka collects the necessary information in order to determine what type of life you will lead!"

Yuriko narrowed her eyes as she looked at Last Order, the girl seeing the eye contact and smiling once more. The radiance behind it was nothing more than blinding as Last Order spoke once more.

"Misaka wants you to be happy, even without Misaka by your side says Misaka as Misaka speaks from the heart. So, seeing you make this choice despite the pain it might give means that you're not scared anymore of the world. And that only proves that you're the strongest!"

Last Order spoke pure words from her heart as Yuriko looked at her with a soft glance. She didn't think that Last Order had been thinking of her in that way but seeing that it was the case only made her truly happy.

"And when you screw up, Misaka will be there to make fun of you. I'll be moral support for your failures!"

And then Worst had to go and ruin everything with her fucking mouth.

Yuriko turned to her with a gaze that would have killed a small animal as Kamijou merely grinned while he looked at the scene, letting go of Last Order from his neck and sticking out a hand in front of him. Yuriko saw the movement, regarding it with curiosity as the boy cleared his throat.

"Well despite what I might say, this was all you Suzushina. So, I'm happy for you. But since we can say that this is a new 'first meeting', I think introductions are in order. My name is Kamijou Touma and I'll be your new classmate. I'm a bit of an idiot but I seriously hope that we can be good to each other and help each other out when we need to." Kamijou said in seriousness as Yuriko deadpanned.

"It's a bit off putting when you call yourself an idiot."

Kamijou laughed at that as the girl seemed rather taken aback at the warm sound. She blinked and looked at the proffered hand, thinking back to something that Yomikawa had said about her first day at school.

That it was the start of something new. A new age, a new story and a new chapter in her life.

Yuriko could not remark on the accuracy of such a statement but even so, she felt as though this definitely was a new starting point in her life. It was something as simple as going to school yet the following days were surely going to be filled with pain, happiness, rom coms, drama and other needless and annoying events that would press down at her from all sides.

She had been scared of it at first but when looking at what was to happen and her own choices, she had taken the first step into the 'great unknown'. What lay beyond the threshold was unknown but Yuriko knew without a doubt that it would definitely prove to be something that would allow her something if nothing else.

A look into the type of peace Kamijou Touma had managed to strike for himself.

If anything, Yuriko wanted to be a part of that peace, to see it with her own eyes. And so, she had made her choice.

Even though her own heart wanted yet at the same time did not want the boy in front of her.

Regardless though, ignoring those thoughts within her head she reached for the hand that was offered and grabbed it.

And did something that was so rare for that girl.

She smiled as she spoke that name that had been given to her by this boy in front of her.

"My name… is Suzushina Yuriko. I hope that we can be good to each other as well."

Kamijou Touma grinned and Suzushina Yuriko felt a warm blush come to her cheeks as she looked at it, hanging her head out of the embarrassment so the boy would not realise the feelings sleeping deep within her.

Despite that feeling deep in her heart that she kept to herself, she also felt within her heart that even though she had accepted the pain, happiness and consequences of her choice right now, there was at least one happy moment to start this new chapter in her life off.

The only thing to consider was what happened from here on out.

And that was something that only she, Suzushina Yuriko, the #1 Level 5 esper holding the power called Accelerator could decide.

* * *

**[1] This actually happened. In the novel, the report that Touma picks up outlines all of the 7 Level 5s and their names however he skips over them to get to the heart of the matter within the report. Hence in this story he picks out Accelerator's name instead of just referring to him as 'Accelerator'.**

**And there we go!**

**Did you see how the title was relevant? It LITERALLY was the #1 Girl!**

**Firstly, I hope that I did all the fanarts justice. Whenever you look at a picture of Yuriko, you get the feeling that she has a personality a bit like Mikoto with the backstory of Accelerator but it was hard to say which 'direction' that I wanted to go with this. I looked at numerous fanarts and tried to make my impressions based on them which resulted in this short story (I think it's better calling them this than one-shots given their length). It was pretty hard though choosing what type of 'dere' that I could have in this case.**

**As you can see here I gave Yuriko a more 'in tune' with herself feeling. She's more accepting of her feelings, knowing what she likes and dislikes and ultimately although I ended up only having a small amount of words to portray her character I wanted you to get the feeling that she was the type of girl that is sort of like the Ugly Duckling. Get past the outer appearance that is rather male looking and intimidating and you find someone with a heart that realises that she's done wrong and wants to fix it yet understands that there is one thing that she can never have, a self-imposed limiter put in place as the ultimate punishment.**

**I gave her some characteristics from the Accelerator that we all know (his overall vocabulary, backstory and how he feels and wants to protect Last Order above everything) while also incorporating some aspect of 'feminism' within such. I'm not saying that girls can't be evil or villains but I wanted to add a bit of 'moe' to the mix despite all of it so you ended up with this! Again though, her mannerisms were hard to get down: while in some respects she is an old character, she is also completely new and there are so many different impressions of her that is hard deciding the one I wanted to go with.**

**So, we ended up with this. I hope you enjoyed it despite how the gaps that were formed took hold.**

**I want to say that this was easy given Accelerator was used as the base but it was pretty hard as well! Giving his feelings regarding Touma seemed the obvious choice but extending those from what Accelerator already feels for him (his respect and admiration) was a bit hard in the sense that I had to make it feel natural and not entirely forced. Not only that but the hairpin bit was something I added on the fly but at the same time I feel adds to that 'moe' feel and really gets across the feeling that Acclerator here is a girl. Hopefully this entire thing felt natural despite the unnatural concept but it really changed things up which was fun to see!**

**But can you understand how Yuriko feels here? She wants to be happy (something that she has with Last Order and her family) yet the concept of being more than happy with Touma is something that she won't allow herself because of what she's done. In a way, I think that her wanting redemption for the point of allowing herself a chance with Touma in a romantic way is a part of her own suffering in that no matter how much she wants it, she can't decide whether she deserves it or has it being the right thing for her.**

**However, she realises that if she wants to view the world in a greater sense she needs to overcome this fear and come to terms with the fact that the only thing that she can do is move forward. Which ironically is something that Touma has been doing this entire time.**

**And the way that she does it here is to accept the offer and go to school.**

**So overall what did you think? Did Suzushina Yuriko touch at your heartstrings and did you feel something, if anything for her?! If you did, then I think that my job is done and there is nothing more for me do. If you felt anything (hopefully positive), then I am more than pleased.**

**And as always,  
Review if you please.**

**And I'll see you when I see you and I won't if I don't.**

**Did you notice how I referred to Yuriko as 'Yuriko' instead of Suzushina? That's my own personal preference talking as since she can never be a heroine, I just feel as though she has the ability to become a great one from her characterisation alone. Hence using Yuriko when referring to her. Ah, I want to do another one of these…**


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